Georgetown University is among the 45 universities the U.S. Department of Education will investigate for allegedly using “race-exclusionary practices” in graduate programs, the department announced in a March 14 press release.
The department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) claims the universities violated the Civil Rights Act by partnering with the Ph.D. Project, a nonprofit aiming to increase diversity in business education. The investigation comes after the department sent a Feb. 14 letter to educational institutions warning them to end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and race-based initiatives or risk losing federal funding.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a press release that the department is working to end stereotypes in education.
“The Department is working to reorient civil rights enforcement to ensure all students are protected from illegal discrimination,” McMahon wrote in the press release. “Today’s announcement expands our efforts to ensure universities are not discriminating against their students based on race and race stereotypes.”
“Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin,” McMahon added. “We will not yield on this commitment.”
The Ph.D. Project, a nonprofit founded in 1994, originally aimed to support diversity in the corporate world and business field, supporting underrepresented minorities — particularly Black, Hispanic and Native American students — applying for doctoral degrees and navigating the networking process. This year, the organization opened its membership application to all applicants regardless of race after previously restricting applications to underrepresented minorities.
A spokesperson for the Ph.D. Project said their programs have helped diverse graduates enter the workplace.
“For the last 30 years, The PhD Project has worked to expand the pool of workplace talent by developing business school faculty who inspire, mentor and support tomorrow’s leaders,” a Ph.D. Project spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “This year, we have opened our membership application to anyone who shares that vision. The PhD Project was founded with the goal of providing more role models in the front of business classrooms, which remains our goal today.”
The university has not publicly acknowledged a partnership with the Ph.D. Project, and neither the university nor nonprofit’s website lists the partnership. A university spokesperson did not respond to questions about the existence or the extent of its partnership with the Ph.D. Project.
According to Janel George, a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center whose work focuses on race in education, the investigations are related to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in education. Educational institutions who violated the law can lose federal funding.
George said the Trump administration’s application of civil rights law improperly ignores the history of racial discrimination it attempts to remedy.
“The current administration has distorted the kind of discrimination prohibited under Title VI to equate efforts to remedy the legacy of 246 years of slavery and almost a century of Jim Crow laws with ‘separate but equal’ laws designed to impose second-class citizenship on Black people,” George wrote to The Hoya.
George said the federal government’s attempts to end DEI programs and recognition reverses progress toward racial equality in the United States.
“These efforts are anti-Black at their roots and seek to maintain racial subordination and inequality,” George wrote. “If we do not have DEI or inclusion and are not allowed to teach about racial discrimination or the history of race in America, we have a reinstatement of segregation and the erasure of the identities and contributions of Black Americans and other people of color to this country.”
Jared Salcedo (GRD ’29), who co-directs the DEI Committee of Georgetown’s graduate student government, GradGov, said Georgetown’s commitment to diversity is core to its mission.
“Recent developments have left many in our community deeply concerned,” Salcedo wrote to The Hoya. “Georgetown’s strength lies in its commitment to cura personalis — a promise to honor each individual’s unique journey and foster an environment where diverse perspectives are not just welcomed but essential to learning.”
“Diversity isn’t incidental to our mission; it’s the foundation,” Salcedo added. “To see efforts that uplift underrepresented voices scrutinized risks undermining the very inclusivity that defines us.”
George added that diversity is a core value for people in the United States and university leaders should consider it a positive element of higher education.
“Diversity is not divisive,” George wrote. “Diversity is not a bad thing. We cannot adopt the vilification of words like ‘woke’ or DEI because by doing so we capitulate to the mischaracterization of them as inherently bad and they are not. Diversity is what defines and distinguishes our American democracy.”
Salcedo said he hopes Georgetown’s community supports the university’s commitment to equity.
“To those grappling with uncertainty: Your voices are vital, and you’re not alone,” Salcedo wrote. “Georgetown’s legacy isn’t shaped by compliance alone, but by the compassion and courage of its community. Together, we must find ways to advance equity without sacrificing the values that bind us, ensuring every student feels seen, supported and empowered to thrive.”