White House pressure prompts universities to cut ties with nonprofits that help racial minorities

The Trump administration said Thursday that a drive to end diversity programs in higher education has led to dozens of universities cutting ties with an organization known as the PhD Project, which helps racial minorities earn doctoral degrees.

The PhD Project was a little-known nonprofit group until it caught the attention of conservative strategists last year and became the focus of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education. Republican administrations say school diversity programs often exclude white and Asian American students.

Thirty-one universities have agreed to end partnerships with the group as a result of the investigation, which opened in March 2025, the department’s Office for Civil Rights said Thursday. He said that talks are ongoing with 14 more schools.

The department said in its statement that the PhD project “unlawfully limits the eligibility of participants based on race” and that institutions partnering with it violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in educational programs and activities that receive federal money.

“This is Trump’s influence in action: Institutions of higher education are agreeing to sever ties with discriminatory institutions, comply with federal law and restore equality of opportunity on campuses across the nation,” said Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

Many schools immediately cut ties with the PhD project after the research was opened, to avoid confusion with the administration. The inquiry came after it warned that schools could lose federal money over “race-based preferences.”

The PhD Project is one of several nonprofit organizations that help underrepresented groups gain access to higher education.

“The PhD project was established with the goal of providing more role models at the forefront of the professional classroom, and that remains our goal today,” the organization said in a statement Thursday. The website says it has “helped more than 1,500 members earn their doctoral degrees.”

The group of 31 colleges listed by the department included major public research universities such as Arizona State, Ohio State and the University of Michigan, as well as prestigious private schools such as Yale, Duke and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

MIT, like many of the schools cited in the investigation, paid a “nominal fee” to the PhD project to participate in the group’s university fairs or conferences, allowing MIT to send representatives to answer questions that attend their schools, spokeswoman Kimberly Allen said.

MIT notified the government in April 2025 that it was ending its participation in such conferences and was notified months later that the Office for Civil Rights had found violations of Title VI. The school signed a “resolution agreement” with the department about a week ago to resolve the matter “but expressly admitted no liability, wrongdoing or violation of any law or regulation,” Allen said.

The University of North Dakota said it immediately ended its membership with the PhD project two weeks after the research was announced last year.

“The University has become a member of the PhD Project to access the PhD Project’s member directory and applicant database, to be able to recruit a large pool of qualified applicants for faculty positions,” spokesman David Dodds said in a statement.

The University of Utah said it has scheduled annual conferences hosted by the nonprofit organization for the 2024-25 school year and the two previous years. It severed ties with the project in October after reaching an agreement with the department, university spokeswoman Rebecca Walsh said.

Of the 170 PhD students enrolled in Utah’s business school over the past 14 years, only two were involved through the PhD project, Walsh said.

The Education Department said all 31 universities also agreed to review partnerships with other institutions “to identify any violations of Title VI by restricting participation based on race.”

The administration has targeted a wide range of practices it has labeled as diversity, equity and inclusion.

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