DEI and Federal Funding: How UAlbany Professors and Local Politicians Are Reacting to Trump’s Executive Orders

By Vince Gasparini | March 31, 2025

President Donald Trump has entered his second term firing on all cylinders.

Following his inauguration on January 20, the real estate mogul-turned politician signed a record-setting 26 executive orders which spanned from withdrawing from the World Health Organization, to ending birthright citizenship and dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal workforce.

Trump’s push against DEI has not been unique to federal employees, however. In a memo sent out by the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, the department states that DEI programs that factor race are “discriminatory,” and threatens that if institutions do not end these practices, they may lose federal funding.

The University at Albany’s University Hall on the Entry Plaza

Photo Credit: Vince Gasparini / The ASP

And while Trump’s orders targeting DEI hang in legal limbo in federal courts, many in the sphere of higher education are concerned for what is to come.

Paul Stasi, the President of the Albany Chapter of United University Professions (UUP), the union that represents SUNY faculty, called Trump’s actions “a straight up assault on public sector unions, government workers and values of diversity, equity and inclusion that the union has always stood for.”

“We have exited politics as normal and entered something that’s more like open warfare on the working class,” Stasi said.

Stasi said that the rhetoric of the federal government has struck fear and anxiety among students who are of immigrant backgrounds, transgender students, and students who are of any sort of minority background, and he warns that if the threats of withholding funding that the Trump administration has proposed were to be implemented, it would be a large hit to UAlbany.

“If they withhold all funding from things that have anything to do with diversity, you would see major layoffs at state universities,” Stasi said. “You would see departments firing people or closing. It would be catastrophic if it happened to the extent that they are pretending it will.”

While Stasi does not necessarily believe that mass withholding of funding and mass layoffs are a guarantee, he thinks that there is a lot at stake for both SUNY students and professors alike. As of right now, no funding that affects UUP members has been withheld, but Stasi said that people working on issues such as disparities in health outcomes for minority populations have been notified by the federal government about specific grants that they may lose if Trump’s attacks on DEI are successful.

Stasi also said that if funding were to be cut, there is hope that the cuts would not be made to existing federal grants and only to potential future ones.

“The range of things that are being considered is pretty severe,” Stasi said. “Anything that admits that people are of different races and therefore acknowledges the different histories and historical experiences that people have had is potentially under threat.”

And while Trump’s funding cuts regarding DEI are still up in the air, UUP spokesman Mike Lisi told the ASP that the funding cuts made by the Trump administration to the National Institute of Health have already cost SUNY about $79 million.

“What we know is that the cuts that have already been announced will have a punishing impact on our members and the vital work they do,” UUP President Fred Kowal said in response to comment. “Clinical research will grind to a halt and researchers and their staffs will lose their jobs or encounter ever-increasing difficulty in initiating and continuing research.”

Paul Burgdorf, a Republican member of the Albany County Legislature, said he supports ending DEI programs because he has seen it be used to deny qualified candidates job opportunities.

“I have seen people who would be at the top of a merit selection list cast to the side in favor of someone who does not meet high-end criteria for employment,” he said.

Burgdorf says that the rejection of merit-based selection has had effects even outside of academia; he claims that the shortage of air traffic control workers was due to DEI policies instituted by Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

“They could take into consideration your broader life experiences,” he said. “And because of that they turned down over 1,000 graduates from the FAA Academy to train air traffic controllers.”

And while Burgdorf acknowledges that people are worried about what taking away DEI programs could mean for universities, he said that the people who are mostly concerned are people who are running the programs.

“You have this institutionalized group of folks that make their money consulting through DEI, teaching DEI and spreading the word and indoctrinating college students,” he said. “Their livelihood may come to an end. I think those will be the most impacted people, and I think the message that it sends to prospective students is that you have to rely on your merit and your achievements.”

Elizabeth Vásquez, an associate professor in UAlbany’s College of Integrated Health Sciences, does research on social determinants and their relation to aging in place. She fears that cuts by the Trump administration, even beyond academia, could negatively impact the people who she studies in her research.

“Any cuts that are made to federal funds, or that are made to institutions like Medicaid, are going to affect the populations that I work with,” Vásquez said.

Vázquez, who also runs the Center for Elimination of Minority Health Disparities, also said that a fellowship through the center meant to streamline minority researchers into fields spanning from public health, health care and anthropology could also be at threat.

“We already know that Hispanics are underrepresented, we already know that African Americans are underrepresented at the highest levels of employment,” she said. “So if we then come back and eliminate all of this, it makes it even more complex, and we may end up losing diversity.”

Vásquez also said that while these cuts are largely aimed at minority populations, their harm could affect people of all types of backgrounds.

“It doesn’t just affect people of color,” she said. “If you are a person who works mostly low-paying jobs through most of your adult life, it doesn’t matter what color you are: when you get older you are going to need some help because Medicare doesn’t cover everything. You may need Medicaid, you may need some sort of supplemental assistance.”

“That happens across the board. It happens to minorities, and it also happens to white people from rural America,” she said.