More than three dozen universities including Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Duke have their participation in a federal research partnership on the chopping block after the state department proposed to suspend them over their diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices.
Last week, the Guardian obtained an internal memo and spreadsheet showing that the state department is moving to exclude 38 institutions from the Diplomacy Lab program, which pairs university researchers with state department policy offices on foreign policy projects. The suspensions would take effect on 1 January, and because the list is not finalized, the schools have not yet been informed.
The suspensions would reshape the academic partnership network, with 38 institutions removed and 10 new schools approved to join.
The targeted schools include elite universities such as Stanford University, Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University and the University of Southern California, as well as American University, George Washington University, Syracuse University and several University of California campuses.
Universities recommended to remain include Columbia University, MIT, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia and the University of Texas at Austin. Several of these moved to comply with the administration’s anti-DEI demands earlier this year – Columbia agreed in July to pay more than $200m to the federal government and pledged not to use “race, color, sex or national origin” in hiring decisions, while the University of Virginia’s president resigned in June after the justice department demanded he step down over the school’s diversity practices.
Peter Trumbore, chair of the political science department and Diplomacy Lab campus coordinator at Oakland University, which would have its funding suspended, said they have received no notification of a change. “We receive no funding from the state department for the projects that we do as Diplomacy Lab participants,” he said. “Our students have had invaluable experiences conducting research on behalf of State and working with State Department stakeholders in producing and presenting their work.”
The University of Southern California said in a statement: “The university complies with all applicable federal nondiscrimination laws and does not engage in any unlawful DEI hiring practices. We are proud of our long-standing partnerships with the federal government.” The university said it “appreciated travel funding” provided by the program for two students in 2017.
Sarah Voigt, director of communications at St Catherine University, said the school had been participating since 2020 and was first notified of a pause in Diplomacy Lab activities earlier this year on 31 January, with the program shut down “due to a lack of government funding” and did not apply for any Fall 2025 research opportunities. She added: “At this time, we are not aware of any decision to exclude St Catherine University from future research opportunities.”
The 17 November memo states that an office within the state department’s bureau of public affairs will update criteria to “only include institutions with merit-based hiring practices” and exclude those with DEI hiring policies, whether implemented openly or discreetly.
The state department did not deny the memo’s existence. “The Trump administration is very clear about its stance on DEI,” a spokesperson said when the Guardian first reported the story. “The state department is reviewing all programs to ensure that they are in line with the president’s agenda.”
