On May 7, WashU announced the formation of a University-wide committee tasked with reviewing and recommending changes to the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and activities. The announcement emphasized that the creation of the committee is the latest step in the University’s ongoing evaluation of its DEI efforts. 

Four postdoctoral researchers — Marc Blanc, Jessica Samuel, Jesse J. Lee, and Danielle Williams — spoke in a panel titled “Humanities Politicized” on April 17 to address the status of humanities research in academia amid funding cuts and restrictions to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) by the Trump administration that began in early April. 

First-year Arianna Zeldin recently started a new conservative podcast titled Beyond the Ballot and invited sophomore Ella Bruno, the current president of the WashU Republicans, to be a co-host. The podcast, which intends to host Chancellor Andrew Martin in its forthcoming second episode, explains that it will provide “Conservative views, Bold discussions, unfiltered takes on today’s political climate.” 

The Trump administration has revoked visas for over 25 international students at universities in the St. Louis area, including St. Louis University and Webster University, as well as terminated the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records of select international students at WashU as reported by local news outlets on Tuesday, April 15. The government-run SEVIS database tracks information about non-immigrant students in the US, including their visa status.  

Dozens of members of the WashU community gathered in Umrath Lounge to hear Andrew Weiss speak as the latest installment of the Crisis & Conflict in Historical Perspective Speaker Series and Public Form.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it was investigating 45 universities across the United States, including WashU, for allegedly “engaging in race-exclusionary practices” in their education programs and activities Mar. 14.

WashU research projects have been affected by Trump administration policies that have restricted funding and access to critical information. To better understand these impacts, Student Life editors Aliza Lubitz and Zach Trabitz spoke with individuals involved in two university programs: the St. Louis Integrated Database of Enslavement (SLIDE) team and the Enhancing Neuroscience Diversity through Undergraduate Research Education (ENDURE) program.

The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has incited concern among WashU students and faculty, and caused at least one department in the Medical School to send out a document detailing what to do if Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is present on campus. 

WashU students and recent graduates in the Government, Policy, & Social Impact career community are drastically shifting their career plans after numerous executive orders from Trump’s administration resulted  in mass firings and a hiring freeze.

Five WashU Law professors participated in a panel that explored the implications and potential constitutional violations of the Trump administration’s recent plethora of executive orders. The event, hosted by the law school, was titled “Beyond the Headlines: Executive Orders and Presidential Power” and was held on Feb. 19.