EAST LANSING — Michigan State University has ended affirmative action in hiring in what appears to be the first major change to comply with new directives from the administration of President Donald Trump.
This decision was made to comply with Trump’s January directive rescinding a decades-old requirement for institutions receiving federal funding to use affirmative action in hiring decisions. Trump’s order prohibits any federal contractor, such as a university receiving federal funding, from engaging in “workforce balancing based on race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin.”
MSU had 90 days to comply with the order, making the deadline April 21.
The university also has scrubbed language stating “MSU is an affirmative-action, equal-opportunity employer,” from the legal footnotes of its websites. Heather Swain, the university’s chief marketing officer, informed university department heads that the language would be removed per legal guidance, according to an email the State Journal obtained.
It’s not immediately clear what impact the change will have – if any – on those who currently are employed or applying for jobs at MSU.
MSU stated on its human resources webpage that it will continue to commit to non-discrimination and equal opportunity, and would continue to cast a “wide and inclusive net in its recruiting efforts.”
The university also said that those in charge of hiring across campus “should continue to utilize recruiting tools” to help MSU achieve those goals.
It’s not clear how the university intends to recruit the wide variety of applicants they hope to or how they will staff positions that require the person to be of a specific gender, such as a resident assistant for a dorm floor that is restricted to all male or all female residents.
MSU spokesperson Amber McCann did not elaborate on exactly how the university intended to fulfill those goals while complying with the directive.
Previously, all federal contractors had to take “affirmative steps” to make sure that everyone who applied for a position and any other employment actions were considered without “regard to race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.”
According to the university, this included collecting demographic data and using that data to compare MSU’s workforce to the available workforce in the job market and, when required, create placement goals based on race, sex, color, ethnicity and national origin according to job group.
MSU emphasized that the placement goals did not require selecting candidates based on a protected category, which is illegal, as is any employment decision based on a protected category. Instead, the university said these goals informed decisions about attracting candidates from particular protected categories and diversifying pools of applicants.
Affirmative action in hiring is illegal in Michigan. In 2006, the Michigan Constitution was amended through a ballot initiative to prohibit affirmative action by public universities with an exception for those receiving federal funding, which had to follow the mandate established through executive order by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
In February, MSU ordered deans and other school leaders to review all “programs and activities” to make sure the university is complying with anti-discrimination laws, with a specific focus on those that may focus or appear to focus on individuals based on a protected identity, such as race, ethnicity, gender or religion.
MSU has not been public with the internal changes being made to comply with the executive orders, including those to eliminate DEI.
Noncompliance with executive orders could mean MSU would lose hundreds of millions of dollars from federal grants and contracts. In 2024, the university received $528 million from the federal government, a significant amount supporting research at the institution, the 2024 Annual Financial Report shows. MSU’s endowment is $4.4 billion, according to an October 2024 release from the university.
The University of Michigan earlier this year shuttered its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to comply with Trump’s directives. MSU still has active DEI program websites working across the university, as of Thursday.
Contact Sarah Atwood at satwood@lsj.com. Follow her on X @sarahmatwood.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU strikes affirmative action from hiring per Trump directive