Towson University’s DEI plan is quietly ending. A faculty email might explain why another won’t take its place.

By Sarah Sternhagen, Editor-in-Chief

Towson University won’t create a new standalone plan guiding its diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts after its existing one expires this year, in part to “reduce perceived risks” to the college, according to an email among faculty that The Towerlight obtained.

The decision to not pursue a DEI-specific plan comes as the Trump administration targets diversity initiatives in higher education, a piece of its larger campaign to remake American colleges. And some Towson students who represent minority groups are concerned that the university’s diversity efforts will weaken as the DEI-specific plan expires.

Towson officials said they are not discontinuing DEI-related goals altogether, just focusing on the ones in Towson’s broad strategic plan, which outlines the university’s objectives through 2030. That blueprint plots goals around DEI, but they are less comprehensive than the diversity-specific plan, which was in place from 2020 to 2025. 

Officials also said there are no personnel changes happening within the Office of Inclusion and Institutional Equity, known as OIIE, which handles university-wide diversity initiatives.

When asked about the email, Towson officials reiterated that the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle diversity efforts had nothing to do with the DEI-centered plan ending.

“The strategic plan is what we’re focused on now,” said Patricia Bradley, vice president of the Office of Institutional Equity and Inclusion, in a separate interview. “That has a pillar of inclusion, and we no longer felt the necessity to continue with the diversity strategic plan.”

Several of Towson’s academic departments had also published statements in support of diversity efforts, which have been scrubbed from Towson’s website. The Towerlight identified seven of those webpages that have now disappeared. Towson departments will post new mission statements in line with the current strategic plan when they’re created, according to Towson spokesperson Sean Welsh. 

Several leaders of cultural student clubs said the diversity goals within the general strategic plan feel overly broad. Aniya Smith, the president of Towson’s NAACP chapter, is one of them.

“This is a broad scope, like we’re gonna touch on it, but not too much,” Smith said of Towson’s diversity goals. “We’re gonna say we have it, just so y’all can feel okay, but we’re gonna be on the safe side because we don’t still want to get in trouble with the Trump administration. That’s what it sounds like.”

Smith said she understood if the university was hesitant about landing in the Trump administration’s crosshairs, but that Towson still had a responsibility to protect its minority students.

White students make up the biggest racial demographic at Towson, though it’s still a minority-majority campus. Roughly 40% of Towson students are white, less than half, and 33% are African American/Black, 11% are Hispanic, and 6% are Asian, according to university data. 

Jasmine Mouring is the president of the Native American and Indigenous Student Union at Towson, known as NAISU. She founded the club in November of 2024 because she wanted to have a space on campus she felt she belonged to. 

“I do think it kind of says, without saying, that there’s less care that’s placed on non-white students,” Sophia Gromek, the vice president of NAISU, said about the adoption of the general strategic plan.

Towson’s 46-page DEI-specific plan had four overarching goals, with over 50 sub-goals across the categories. It also specified which university departments were responsible for carrying out those goals. 

Meanwhile, the DEI-related section of the broad strategic plan is much shorter than the diversity-specific plan, with only six bullet point initiatives. Several main goals in the DEI-specific plan match those in the broad strategic plan, but the latter does not specify which university offices oversee those goals.

The general strategic plan does not state how Towson will measure DEI’s impact. 

“There’s so many buzzwords,” Mouring said about the broad university plan. “‘Diversity-rich learning’, wow.” 

Current Strategic Plan	2020-2025 DEI Specific Plan
Provide ongoing teaching, learning, research and service opportunities to prepare students, faculty and staff to address diversity, inclusion and equity issues in disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields.	Provide ongoing teaching, learning, research and service opportunities to prepare and support students, staff and faculty to address diversity, inclusion and equity issues in disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields and all areas of work at Towson University.
Increase diversity-rich learning experiences that raise all students’ self-awareness and ethical and cultural intelligences while advancing their understanding and commitment to TU’s values of inclusion, diversity and equity.	Increase diversity-rich learning experiences that raise all students’ self-awareness and cultural intelligence and increase understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion, while encouraging engagement in the greater community.
Provide resources for faculty to learn, use and evaluate inclusive teaching and learning practices, scholarly research and creative activities.	Develop resources for faculty to learn, use and evaluate inclusive teaching practices and scholarly research.

The DEI-specific plan lays out how Towson would measure diversity initiatives over time and benchmarks to meet around inclusion goals. It also compiles student and employee demographics, as well as graduation rates broken down by race and gender. 

Towson President Mark Ginsberg said in an interview the larger strategic plan is explicit enough about how Towson can tackle diversity-related issues.

“And I feel really confident that that focus is a good one, so I don’t think there’s a need to create a new plan at this point,” Ginsberg said.

Diversity is one major area of contention between colleges and the Trump administration. The U.S. Department of Education under Trump froze hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to colleges nationwide, claiming they rely on racial preferences in admissions and don’t combat antisemitism on campuses, and many other grievances.

The Education Department is also investigating Towson at the moment over allegedly violating civil rights law by working with a nonprofit that helps students from underrepresented groups earn doctorates.

Karsonya “Kaye” Whitehead, founder of research group the Karson Institute for Race, Peace & Social Justice at Loyola University Maryland, said fighting the Trump administration is a battle few colleges are able to take on. She said universities should be thinking about surviving Trump’s attacks on higher education.

“Universities should be looking very closely at their statements, and you should craft it in such a way that you will not be put into the bulls line,” Whitehead said. “Doesn’t mean you discontinue the work. It means that you find a better way.”

The Trump administration has heavily targeted colleges in its anti-diversity efforts, and it’s changing how universities talk about inclusivity, according to Dana Polson who works at Baltimore Racial Justice Action. Polson does consulting with various organizations on how anti-racism shows up in company policies. 

Polson said lots of organizations, not just colleges, are changing how they talk publicly about diversity.

“You may say something, and then do an even more watered down, crappy version of it,” Polson said. “Or maybe you say something, and behind the scenes you’re doing the real work.”