UC Berkeley has severed ties with a nonprofit that aims to diversify the ranks of business school professors in the wake of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education, the department said Thursday.
Education Department officials had accused The PhD Project, which has helped Black, Latino and Native American students earn doctorates in business since the 1990s, of violating federal anti-discrimination law by restricting admission to its programs by race.
UC Berkeley is among 31 colleges nationwide to end partnerships with the group, the department’s Office for Civil Rights said. Negotiations are ongoing at 14 additional schools, according to the department.
UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore said that participants from the campus had attended the organization’s programs in past academic years but that the university “presently has no formal relationship with The PhD Project.”
The PhD Project hosts an annual conference for prospective doctoral students, and its website says it has helped more than 1,700 people earn doctoral degrees.
“Our vision is to create a broader talent pipeline of current and future business leaders who are committed to excellence and to each other,” the group said in a statement Thursday. “The PhD Project was founded with the goal of providing more role models in the front of business classrooms and this remains our goal today.”
The PhD Project drew fire from right-wing activists and politicians last year after Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and frequent higher education critic, posted on X about a conference it held for prospective doctoral students who “identify as Black/African American, LatinX/Hispanic American, or Native American/Canadian Indigenous.”
The group now says its programs are open to students of any race interested in pursuing a business doctorate.
The Education Department, however, has continued to investigate universities over their ties with the group. In announcing settlements in those cases Thursday, the department said the 31 schools had either already severed their partnerships with The PhD Project or agreed to do so going forward. The universities had also pledged to review other partnerships with outside groups “to identify any that violate Title VI by restricting participation based on race,” the department said, referring to the part of the Civil Rights Act that prevents discrimination in federally funded programs.
Asked if UC Berkeley had conducted that review, Gilmore said by email that the university “complies with all state and federal laws and consequently has not had to change any of its practices under the PhD Project agreement with the U.S. Department of Education.”
The Washington Post reported Thursday that those reviews had led some campuses to cut ties with other groups that support people of color. California State University had promised its Cal Poly Pomona campus would end its relationship with The Links Inc, a community service organization led by Black women, the Post reported.
Judge ruled this week against Trump administration’s anti-DEI directive to colleges
The announcement of the PhD Project settlements came a day after a federal judge in a final ruling invalidated Education Department guidance that had sought to restrict colleges’ ability to promote diversity on campus.
That “Dear Colleague” letter, sent to schools and colleges last year, accused U.S. educational institutions of discriminating against white and Asian students, said “DEI programs” including race-based scholarships and graduations constituted discrimination, and warned schools to discontinue them or face losing federal funds. But in a victory for the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups that had sued to block the guidance, the court found the letter itself vague and discriminatory and the Education Department last month dropped its appeal.
In the meantime, the Trump administration has launched dozens of investigations into diversity efforts at school districts and universities nationwide, including UC Berkeley, prompting some to shut down or change their programs.
“All the programs that were being scrutinized helped create more belonging for Black students and queer and Latinx and Asian students,” said Antonio Ingram, senior counsel at the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund.
The court decision might embolden colleges to push back, he said. But he also called the decision a “reckoning” that would illustrate whether universities had abandoned programs because of legal concerns or a broader culture of compliance with the federal government’s demands.
“Will these schools reopen the Black Student Union? The queer resource center? Time will tell. But I think it’s a lot easier to close down a facility than open it,” he said.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the PhD Project settlements are evidence the department is succeeding in its efforts to stamp out DEI and enforce what it describes as a merit-based, color-blind education system.
“This is the Trump effect in action: institutions of higher education are agreeing to cut ties with discriminatory organizations, recommitting themselves to abiding by federal law, and restoring equality of opportunity on campuses across the nation,” McMahon said in a statement.
Right-wing organizations have continued to file complaints with the department alleging that programs that emphasize serving students of color violate federal civil rights law. Earlier this month the Legal Insurrection Foundation, a conservative group, complained to the department about a list of UC Berkeley programs and scholarships – including the African American Student Development Office, the Black Resource Center, the Latinx Student Resource Center, the African American Initiative Scholarship and the Lloyd A. Edwards Scholarship – that it said illegally exclude students based on race, either explicitly or indirectly through “racial signaling.”
The same group made similar charges in a December complaint to the Department of Justice arguing that centers for undocumented students at California public universities, including UC Berkeley’s Undocumented Students Program, unlawfully discriminate against American-born students.
Neither federal agency responded to inquiries about whether they are investigating the two complaints.
Berkeleyside partners with the nonprofit newsroom Open Campus on higher education coverage.