President Donald Trump’s administration spent the last eight months heating up its efforts to eliminate diversity programs in higher education through attacks on university funding. Shortly after inauguration day, Emerson faculty and cultural leaders expressed confidence in Emerson’s ability to withstand pressures on DEI initiatives as Trump’s term continued and the college finalized its strategic plan.

Recently, the college announced it would reimagine the missions and structures of the division and several offices that handle community building and diversity, to further the strategic plan. The goal of this reorganization, an email in August announcing the changes said, was to ensure these areas work more closely with each other, as well as with students, faculty, and staff to “create a strong, more interconnected Emerson community.” 

The three updated areas were renamed to the Division of Community, Culture, & Belonging, the Cultural Engagement Center, and the Office of Global Engagement and Programs.

Each updated area was accompanied by language changes on the college’s website, and the landing page for these offices and departments is now titled “Value-Centered Emerson,” replacing its previous title “Equity, Access, and Social Justice.”

The Division of Community, Culture, and Belonging (CCB) replaced the Emerson Social Justice Collaborative (SJC), though it remains under the same leadership of Vice President Shaya Gregory Poku. Up until this summer, Poku’s job title was Vice President for Equity & Social Justice from the SJC’s establishment in 2022 until this summer. 

Poku, now vice president of the CCB, told The Beacon that she doesn’t think much will change in day-to-day work. The division still supports the same initiatives, including the Elma Lewis Center, Healing and Advocacy Center, Hub for Inclusive Visionary Engagement, and a strategic partnership with the Office of the Vice President. 

“I think this is just about a reframing,” Poku said. “We’re reframing or repackaging what we’re doing in service to the community in language that is more aligned with the strategic plan.”

Poku said much of the updated language is adapted directly from the strategic plan, Extraordinary Emerson 2030, which was approved last February. Specifically, she said it comes from the plan’s Priority C goals, which state the college will “support a vibrant community culture and experience that fosters creativity, curiosity, belonging, accessibility, and well-being.” The updated language was finalized after the approval of the plan.

“You can see that language in that priority area, surfaced and elevated in … my personal title, but also the title of my division,” Poku said.

Christie Anglade, Vice President of Student Affairs, described similar intentions with the reimagining of the Cultural Engagement Center, which replaced Intercultural Student Affairs. She said the new iteration will try to broaden the scope of cultural celebrations on campus.

“I think every single office has different times where you look at some things and you’re like … they’re not working as great now, so that’s actually a pretty normal and probably healthy thing to do over time,” Anglade said.

These shifts were accompanied by additional language changes on the college’s website, namely removals of the phrase “diversity, equity, [and] inclusion.” 

Since Trump’s inauguration, DEI initiatives across the country have been under attack, as the administration has threatened to cut billions in funding from highly-endowed schools unless they comply with demands to ban diversity initiatives.

Emerson is not the only Boston-area higher education institution to update its DEI language. In January, Northeastern rebranded its “Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” to the “Office of Belonging and Engagement,” which students criticized as a bow to Trump.

Most notably, Harvard University renamed its diversity office last April as part of a lengthy legal battle with the presidential administration. Since then, it has also renamed and closed additional equity and identity-based offices, while consolidating some into its new “Office of Culture and Community.”

The current website for “Values-Centered Emerson” does include two mentions of equity and access in reference to the college’s seven core values under the strategic plan. But this still differs from archived versions of the same webpage before the changes, which included specific mentions of “diversity, equity, inclusion” in the summary of the Internationalization and Equity office—now the Office of Global Engagement and Programs—and in the description of the office of Intercultural Student Affairs—now the Cultural Engagement Center.

Additionally, in the description of the former office of Intercultural Student Affairs, the website stated, “Intercultural Student Affairs supports the integration of all BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ students into the wider College community.” Explicit mentions of these student groups are no longer present in the updated description.

Poku said there was no direct or indirect influence on Emerson’s rebranding decisions by the Trump administration.

“As an organization, we’re always mindful of our legal obligations, and we always work and endeavor to meet them, and there is no one or any entity that gives us cause or concerns,” she said.

Poku said the college has been intentional about ensuring the services and program offerings under the plan that best serve the student population, while remaining legally compliant.

The college also announced in its email this summer that it would be terminating EmersonTogether, a community-building initiative launched last fall, aimed at “build[ing] a stronger, equity-centered community” in the wake of campus turmoil stemming from the arrest of protesters during a pro-Palestine encampment in April 2024.  

EmersonTogether has seen its share of supporters and critics, with some arguing that the programming lacked depth and silenced open political discourse, while others championed it for helping restore stability on campus. 

“I think EmersonTogether met a moment. We’re not exactly that same space [anymore]. I think it served a purpose for the time that we were there,” Anglade said, citing the strategic plan and the college’s recent changes.

Both Poku and Anglade emphasized that centering diversity, inclusion, and belonging will continue in the new areas and cultural organizations, and affinity-based spaces will continue to have a place on campus.

However, some of Emerson’s cultural organizations told The Beacon that they have seen impacts on their operations and recruitment as these changes went into effect.

Layla Stewart, the president of EBONI, Emerson’s Black Organization with Natural Interest, said she became aware of changes to her organization’s operation during conversations she had with the Cultural Engagement Center over the summer. Specifically, Stewart said she was notified that the BIPOC pre-orientation program would not run for the first year since the program started. 

BIPOC pre-orientation was a multi-day program started in 2018, aiming to welcome and foster community building for freshman BIPOC students on Emerson’s predominantly white campus. 

For Stewart, the pre-orientation was how she first became involved with EBONI and was a vital recruitment tool for the organization.

“That’s how I met other Black students on campus,” Stewart said, adding that most of her friends and the other members of EBONI’s executive board attended the pre-orientation freshman year. 

“It made the change from Atlanta to Boston, from high school to Emerson College much smoother,” she said.

This year, Emerson hosted its pre-orientation for international students, but did not offer BIPOC pre-orientation. Content from that program was moved into the main orientation schedule so the programs and supportive resources would be available to all incoming students, a college spokesperson said in a statement to The Beacon.

According to Stewart, the removal of that program was accompanied by a wider slate of adjustments that affected cultural organizations on campus, which were communicated at a cultural council meeting in mid-September. This included communication from Student Engagement and Leadership (SEAL) that EBONI must adjust its constitution to include updated language. Stewart said EBONI’s constitution had to be adapted with language to reflect that the organization was not only available to Emerson’s Black community, but to other students as well.

“We have to open it up,” she said. “When in reality this is for Emerson’s Black students … It’s like Emerson doesn’t even want to highlight that.” 

Stewart added that while EBONI has never been exclusionary about the participation of other racial and cultural groups in the past, it has never had to explicitly denote that acceptance within its constitution. 

“College policy requires that all registered student organizations be open to all students, including affinity-based organizations. SEAL reminded organizations to adjust their language regarding inclusion when it was not clearly stated in their constitutions,” a college spokesperson told The Beacon. “Registered student organizations and interest groups may continue to organize around their mission, as long as they do not engage in any discriminatory or exclusionary practices.”

According to Anglade, codifying more generalized DEI language reflects the college’s commitment to inclusion and ensuring no student feels they can’t come into a space.

“I would hope our students know that it makes our community richer to have these programs and services available to all of our students,” she said. “It makes more sense for a really, truly culturally pluralistic community to have that broad scope.”

In Stewart’s mind, the change has hurt the growth of the organization this semester.

“That’s just really been hard,” Stewart said of the changes, explaining she felt they were struggling in reaching their audience.

She said EBONI hosted an event in late August that was reposted by Emerson’s New Student Orientation Instagram page without emphasizing what the organization was or its specific cultural affiliations.

“A lot of people were looking for us, but they didn’t know where to start to find us, and it just took away from the growth of our org,” Stewart said, adding that EBONI’s first general meeting was only attended by seven members, less than the typical engagement thanks to initiatives like the BIPOC pre-orientation.

AMIGOS, an organization dedicated to bringing Latine and Hispanic culture to campus, was similarly contacted by the Cultural Engagement Center regarding changes before the year began, said a leader within the organization who asked to remain anonymous. 

Similar to EBONI, they said they were advised to change the wording of the organization’s marketing to emphasize that it is open to students of all cultures and nationalities. No direct action has been taken against the organization to enforce changes.

“I definitely wanted to focus this year on making AMIGOS as open … as possible,” they said, though adding, “I feel like I’m walking on eggshells.”

They feel the staff at the Cultural Engagement Center have been supportive and clear, and demonstrated they are there to help AMIGOS as they grapple with similar issues at the institutional level. 

“I feel like everybody’s kind of uncertain,” they said. “It felt way more like a dialogue.”

However, the student said they do worry about whether AMIGOS will be able to maintain the same sense of community it had when they first joined.

“I’m a little bit nervous on how … I can keep giving students this space if there starts to be a lot of restrictions,” they said, adding they also worry how many people will join the organization.

They said that in their communication with the Cultural Engagement Center, it remained unclear which decisions were the school’s own choice of direction.

“What I wish would really change right now is transparency,” they said. “I think the staff themselves don’t know, but their confusion can also leave us confused.”

One employee at the former Intercultural Student Affairs office left their role this July before the changes were publicized. This means that the majority of communication between organizations like EBONI and AMIGOS now goes through only two administrative contacts.

“They can’t really give their all to everyone at once, so it’s just been a little bit hard,” Stewart said.

In the admissions department, there have also been changes to the titles of some student outreach workers regarding diversity. The position of Diversity Outreach Intern has been changed to Outreach Ambassador, according to a September email obtained by The Beacon and sent to impacted student workers by Justin Sharifipour, Associate Vice President and Dean of Admission.

The email said the change in title would better reflect the work and responsibilities of the position, and did not draw any connection to DEI concerns.

“We recognized that many of our student worker positions had ‘intern’ in the title, while none were actually in an internship. As such, we are changing all student worker positions with intern in their title to better reflect their true responsibilities,” the email said. It added that the responsibilities of the role remained the same. Outreach Ambassadors still report to Diana Morales, Associate Director of Admission and Coordinator of Multicultural Recruitment, who oversaw these roles before.

One Outreach Ambassador who spoke with The Beacon on the condition of anonymity said changing the language about interns made sense to them, but added they were confused why the email did not address the removal of “diversity” from their title.

“It could have been [changed to] Diversity Outreach Ambassador, but in this email, it didn’t mention why ‘diversity’ had to change,” they said. According to the ambassador, diversity-centered outreach separated the position from other student ambassador jobs.

“[Diversity] is most likely our job … as a Black student on campus, I would hear questions from high schoolers and parents about how it is being Black on campus and in Boston,” they said.

At this time, no further clarification of the removal of the word “diversity” from the position has been given. “I still think that they should do that to show that they care for the BIPOC community,” the Outreach Ambassador said. 

Given the changes, they doubt that Black students will be as interested in attending Emerson.

“[When you] apply to a school, you feel like you try to find your next home,” they said. “[Potential students] don’t want to be committed to a school that doesn’t emphasize the diversity that’s at [the] school.”

Additionally, the September email stated that Outreach Ambassadors are scheduled to work between 10-12 hours maximum per week this year, representing a reduction from a previous cap of 20 hours per week. This decision, the ambassador said, has caused other former interns to choose not to return to their roles. 

Three staff members in the admissions department were laid off over the summer, The Beacon confirmed. The elimination of these positions coincided with Emerson also laying off 30 staff members in other departments after the college’s enrollment and total revenue fell below projections for the second year in a row.

Conversely this year, Emerson’s Student Ambassadors, who work as campus tour guides, saw an increase in the number of hours they can work per week, multiple student ambassadors confirmed with The Beacon. The position also experienced a hiring freeze this semester, and third-party consultants have been brought in to audit tours and provide feedback.

For the Outreach Ambassador who spoke with The Beacon, seeing their hours cut while others received increases made them feel unprioritized as a resource for incoming students. This sense of confusion around alterations to both nomenclature and oversight of different department areas is something many said they have felt since the new changes took effect.

“It does kind of feel like we’re blindfolded in the situation, like nobody really knows what’s going to happen next or what’s really happening right now,” the leader within AMIGOS said.

Stewart said all of EBONI’s executive board feels “left on our own.”

“We’re kind of scared in some ways, like we don’t want to do the wrong thing, but our purpose is [to be] here to serve students,” she said.

Poku said the various changes should not be taken as an indication that the college is moving in a different direction when it comes to its ongoing support for diversity and inclusion, a resolution shared across administration and by President Jay Bernhardt, she added.

“That’s not something we’re backing away from,” she said. “It’s going to continue to be who we are.”

Editor-in-Chief Meg Richards contributed to this report