By: Abel Flessner
The Department of Education’s recent actions have sparked a cautious response among DU administrators and student leaders.
“It sort of [forces] compliance for folks who are scared of losing funding,” said Vice President of Justice, Equity, and Inclusion Precious Porras.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s call for higher level institutions to submit a response covering seven different requirements the DOE and President Trump deemed necessary for “Academic Excellence in Higher Education” hopes to, in their eyes, make institutions better.
The seven requirements are as follows:
Transparency and merit in admissions, free speech and open inquiry, Intellectual pluralism and academic vitality, affordability & value & student outcomes, Academic standards and rigor in the age of AI, safeguarding research integrity from malign foreign influence, prioritizing American interests
Response, technically, is voluntary; however, if DU were to not respond it could potentially lead to a massive funding hit, which it has already experienced with the removal of MAP grants, which increased tuition for many.
Failure to respond to the DOE puts funding at risk, and some universities will submit a response simply because of the fear of losing funding. It is unclear currently whether DU is one of those universities.
“There can be a lot of fearmongering,” said Assistant Director of Justice, Equity, and Inclusion Amy Omi.
Whether or not the university submits a response, some of these requirements are extremely relevant at DU.
DU is working on a new AI resolution, which essentially ensures students are protecting their privacy, not only in the classroom.
Porras emphasizes that students should not be putting personal, identifiable information into AI, except for Microsoft Copilot, which ensures confidentiality.
Free speech and open inquiry are a very important concept at DU. As a diverse university and an HSI, DU is open to the opinions of everyone but also wants to emphasize historical truths.
“Sometimes what we’re looking at are really painful truths,” Omi said, “[they] cause a lot of shame. We need to be able to have those honest conversations.”
Affordability becomes, in a sense, a two-faced issue. While DU may not want to comply with the DOE, compliance essentially ensures funding states the same, but failure to comply could force prices to go up even further.
This year at DU, tuition, room and board, and parking have all already gone up.
While some of the DOE’s requirements make sense, the concepts of “safeguarding research integrity from malign foreign influence; and prioritizing American interests” may be unsettling,
“American interests,” now, entail elements like ICE raids and bombing the Middle East. These elements do not feel as though they belong at an HSI like Dominican.
“There is a difference between waiting to improve higher education and wanting to control it,” SGA President Rawan Almoaiber said.
When Dominican ultimately makes its decision on whether to comply with the DOE, it must understand what exactly its compliance reflects.
Be the first to comment