Dear Campus Community:
To follow up on my campus-wide email from last week concerning the state law and federal executive orders regarding DEI, I wanted to provide additional information on a couple of issues of concern.
In regard to the impact on student scholarships,聽the University could no longer award scholarships that were diversity-based as defined in聽the state鈥檚 Public Chapter 245, and聽as a result,聽all unawarded funds were immediately suspended聽by our institution.聽However, our intent is to honor聽scholarship聽awards made prior to this new law, and聽students who have been notified of an award should expect to receive that aid this coming year.
Moving forward, we will continue to explore the opportunities available to best support the needs of our students. With legal challenges to a number of the Executive Orders and federal agency directives, we have chosen to suspend future awards until we have greater clarity.
Also, we are still reviewing our programs and activities to ensure聽they are in compliance. I anticipate we will have this analysis completed in the next few weeks and, if required, will take appropriate action at that time. Until then, unless you have received specific instructions or notification of any change, please continue normal operations.聽
I recognize that there are more questions than answers at this time, which can be unsettling.聽We are committed to resolving these issues as quickly as possible, balancing the needs of our community with the requirements of these new laws. 聽
Thank you for your patience and understanding during this challenging time.
Sincerely,
Sidney A. McPhee
President