Cornell law professor warns DEI programs will return to universities

The Trump administration’s efforts to target discrimination on college campuses have seen some success, but an Ivy League professor is warning that more needs to be done.

Professor William Jacobson, who has worked at Cornell Law School for nearly two decades, told Fox News Digital in an interview that the Republican-controlled executive and legislative branches have urgent work to do if they want their efforts to end diversity, equity and inclusion to have lasting power whenever Democrats regain power in Washington. 

“This will all come roaring back. I don’t think anybody thinks otherwise. … Everybody knows [the schools] are in hunker-down mode,” Jacobson said. “They are trying to wait out the Trump administration.”

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Jacobson runs the Equal Protection Project, an investigative organization that operates under a nonprofit he founded called the Legal Insurrection Foundation. The organization tracks universities online and files civil rights complaints through the Department of Justice and Education Department, and has occasionally become involved in litigation.

He said his group targets discriminatory versions of DEI and has challenged more than 700 programs across dozens of universities. Jacobson said he has seen what he estimates are 175 successes, where universities succumb to pressure and either eliminate or modify programs that he said have violated civil rights.

DEI is a framework that schools, companies, government agencies and other entities have adopted to promote equal treatment and proportionate representation for minorities.

But conservatives have long argued DEI can itself be a form of discrimination because it extends preferential treatment to minorities.

While Jacobson’s work largely involves seeking administrative remedies, it has at times risen to the federal courts.

His foundation helped bring an ongoing federal lawsuit in the Northern District of New York in 2024 challenging New York’s Science and Technology Entry Program, arguing the program’s eligibility at 56 schools included racial preferences for Black, Hispanic, Native American and Alaskan students, in violation of the Constitution’s equal protection clause.

The DOJ, meanwhile, is managing a barrage of lawsuits brought in response to the Trump administration attempting to strip funding from states and publicly funded schools, which it says are discriminating under the guise of DEI.

Jacobson described those lawsuits as strategic “lawfare,” given the slow nature of the court process.

“Every month they can delay the Trump administration doing something is one less month till help arrives in their viewpoint,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson suggested that pushing to cut off federal funding and locking in rules through formal regulation, rather than temporary executive orders, are key to dismantling what he says are discriminatory DEI programs in higher education.

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President Donald Trump has signed a slew of executive orders attempting to roll back DEI initiatives by leveraging funding. He signed one in January titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” for example, that directed federal agencies to scrutinize public schools and withhold funding from jurisdictions that violated it.

“My view is the executive orders have had a substantial impact, particularly in getting these practices out of the federal government and out of the federal government grant system,” Jacobson said, saying the moves have helped “tremendously” to shift a stubborn culture.

He warned, though, that he “never fully appreciated how much of this DEI came from the federal government” and that going through the tedious, sometimes yearlong government rule-making process to eliminate funding was more effective than executive orders.

“They need to engage in rule-making, because that’s more permanent. … It’s harder to change a rule that went through the process. It’s very easy to eliminate an executive order,” Jacobson said.

He added that “obviously” Congress passing legislation would be the most ideal avenue for terminating racial or sex preferences in school programs.

“But nobody thinks they could get any legislation through the Congress as it’s currently constituted,” Jacobson said.