(Nevada State University photo)
Nevada State University current and former faculty members and students say they have tried to speak out, in vain, against a push from the university’s administration to tear down diversity serving programs.
Students see NSU’s curbing of resources for Hispanic and undocumented students as part of the larger push nationwide to rein in diversity, equity and inclusion programs by the Trump administration. And faculty say attempts to push back against the efforts has led to retaliation by university administrators.
Marcela Rodriguez-Campo, the former director of the university’s Office of Community, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, resigned in August, citing the “discontinuation and erasure” of her department as well as other diversity programs.
“There are folks who had been building at the institution for a decade, who have now been blacklisted, been forced to sign non-disparagement agreements and have essentially had their voices taken from them for advocating for the continuation of these programs and for the needs of students,” she said.
Since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, the U.S. Department of Education, determined to dismantle any DEI initiatives, has launched investigations into higher education institutions’ diversity related programs.
According to the Chronicle for HigherEducation, Nevada State closed its Office of Community, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion as of May 1, one of 403 college campuses in 47 states and the District of Columbia to do so this year.
In an email, Maria Marinch-Gibbons, a spokeswoman with Nevada State, said the dismantling of the CEDI office was part of efforts that began in 2022 to reorganize campus priorities and “ensure the institution is prepared for future growth while maintaining flexibility to adapt to the changing needs of students, faculty, and staff.”
A newly formed Student Transition and Retention Office “is designed to play a crucial role in expanding student service, student peer mentoring, and cohort program experiences to all Nevada State students,” Marinch-Gibbons added in the email.
The Current also emailed NSU seeking additional information, including: how many employees had previously been in the CEDI office or diversity related programs that were transferred to other departments; how many employees were asked to sign agreements prohibiting them from saying anything disparaging about school officials or administrators; and what is NSU’s response to concerns raised by faculty and students who said they face retaliation after speaking up against ending the programs.
The university declined to answer those questions “due to the connection to personnel matters.” It did verify that “standard employment contracts do not include a non-disclosure agreement.”
Rodriguez-Campo said beyond the CEDI office the university is also ending or dramatically scaling programs such as Nepantla, which helped first generation college students, as well other diversity serving programs.
The cuts of staff and threats to jobs have disproportionately impacted on Latinas, she added.
“It’s been really heartbreaking, because many of us have so much love for Nevada State University,” Rodriguez-Campo said. “We are witnessing it be remade in a way that does not align with the values that the institution has said it believes in.”
One current academic faculty, who has worked for Nevada State for several years, said some faculty members were moved around into different departments but “a lot of people moved to roles they were not suited for.”
The anonymous faculty member said she understood if the institution wanted to protect itself from attacks on diversity and threats from the Trump administration but that the school’s leadership “didn’t have to go all in.”
“There is a sense we got from the (Nevada State) administration that people should be grateful,” she said. “In practice, people weren’t being treated like they were colleagues in this process.”
The attacks by the Trump administration on any sort of diversity or equity program has led many universities to lose federal funding. The administration announced this month it would withhold $350 million of congressionally approved funds to minority-serving colleges and universities and divert the funds elsewhere.
Broadly speaking, even conversations at Board of Regent meetings “where institutional leaders were direct and outspoken on what we value,” has shifted to a more cautious tone, said Molly Appel, a member of the Nevada Faculty Alliance and a professor at Nevada State.
The shift in tone isn’t unique to Nevada institutions, she said.
“What we’re seeing is higher education being more focused on maintaining its existence than focusing on its reason for existence,” Appel said.
But the example has been more apparent at Nevada State.
“I don’t envy the position our administrators are in right now,” Appel said. “They are dealing with a lot of shifting ground constantly. I think they do want to be protecting us ultimately. But I see the impact of the choices they are making.”
She couldn’t speak directly about how other universities like UNLV and UNR are responding to anti-diversity backlash.
“I think Nevada State has really gone from being unapologetic about embracing and celebrating students’ diverse, racial, cultural and ethnic identities to tiptoeing around it,” Appel said. “What hasn’t changed is the dedication to first generation students and non-traditional students. That is still very much present in our mission. But the way we talk about (our mission) certainly has changed and there is a feeling of whiplash in many ways.”
In a statement to the Current, UNR said it was committed to “fostering an inclusive, equitable, and diverse learning environment for all students, faculty, and staff” adding that the university is reviewing “policies and programs to ensure compliance with applicable laws while preserving the goals of access, opportunity, and support for students.”
UNLV didn’t respond to requests for comment.
‘Character assassination campaign’
Nevada State University announced in a social media post in August that the CEDI office and its social media would become inactive.
The university had been building a pathway toward dismantling all diversity programs since fall of 2024, Rodriguez-Campo said.
Faculty and staff leading various diversity programs were brought in last year to talk about the direction of those programs.
“We believe that those conversations were intended for us to be able to provide feedback and play an active role in figuring out how we are going to protect our students at our institution and the work that we did,” Rodriguez-Campo said.
That wasn’t the case, she added.
Instead of listening to those leading diversity programs, the administration focused on “reorganization” and began to “strip historic programs that had existed at our institution of their funding, of their staffing, of their spaces, of their resources,” Rodriguez-Campo said.
An email obtained by the Current that was sent in March this year by Leilani Carreno, the former Nepantla Director, showed when community members and Nepantla alumni were first informed the program would be “discontinued.”
“We have built a community where first-generation students have found support, guidance, belonging, and together we have seen generations of students succeed and thrive in their academic journeys,” the email read. “I know this news may feel unsettling, and I want to assure you that we are fully committed to providing support to all current participants during this transition.”
Faculty who ran diversity programs began to voice frustration with the administration about the abrupt changes.
Those faculty were often met with a “character assassination campaign” from high level administration, Rodriguez-Campo said.
In one case, the university took away a staff member’s private office, put her in a cubicle to be supervised, and then barred her from being able to speak directly with students, she added.
“The surveillance she was experiencing was really intense,” Rodriguez-Campo said.
“Any meeting that she had, she had to report back to her supervisor what those meetings were about and why.”
Appel believes the university, and its faculty, are still committed to serving nontraditional students core to Nevada State’s mission.
But she acknowledged there have been departing faculty who told her they left because the “institution no longer aligned with their values or they pushed back against this change.”
In addition to attacks against diversity related programs in higher education, the second Trump term has included a relentless mass deportation campaign targeting undocumented people and reversing immigration policies, such as temporary protected status, for previously protected groups.
Many of the students who benefited from diversity related initiatives also are affected by the shifts in immigration policies.
“They need these supports more than ever,” Appel said. “They need a sense of affirmation. In some ways, they see their institutions tiptoeing around it and hiding.”