The University of Michigan is closing its office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and shutting down diversity initiatives campuswide, in response to executive orders from the Trump administration and internal discussions on campus.

The moves were announced in a campus-wide email from university President Santa Ono and other top leaders Thursday afternoon.

The changes will also affect the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion at Michigan Medicine.

In the email, university leaders acknowledged the diversity initiatives had been successful on some measures.

“First-generation undergraduate students, for example, have increased 46% and undergraduate Pell recipients have increased by more than 32%, driven in part by impactful programs such as Go Blue Guarantee and Wolverine Pathways,” the email read. “The work to remove barriers to student success is inherently challenging, and our leadership has played a vital role in shaping inclusive excellence throughout higher education.”

The University of Michigan has frequently been at the center of conversations about diversity on college campuses; it was the defendant in two lawsuits that reached the Supreme Court in 2003, resulting in rulings that partially struck down affirmative action programs on campus at the time.

Last year, the New York Times reported on UM’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, saying the university had poured more than a quarter of a billion dollars into the programs since 2016, but many critics remained on campus.

In 2023, the university launched what it called its DEI 2.0 strategic plan, which was announced as a five-year plan to run through 2028. On Thursday, the university announced it would abandon the plan, as part of the other cuts to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs on campus. It said it would also update university websites to remove mentions of the DEI efforts.

In a post on the social media site “X”, university regent Sarah Hubbard said cutting the DEI offices on campus would free up money to spend on other student programs.

Today the University of Michigan is ending implementation of DEI.

We are eliminating programs, eliminating affiliated staff and ending the DEI 2.0 strategy.

Late last year we ended the use of diversity statements in faculty hiring. This is now expanded university wide and…

— Sarah Hubbard, Regent @umich (@RegentHubbard) March 27, 2025

“We are eliminating bureaucratic overspending and making Michigan more accessible,” Hubbard wrote, citing the expansion of the Go Blue Guarantee scholarship program, which had previously been announced by the university.

Editor’s note: The University of Michigan holds Michigan Public’s broadcast license.

A new report by the National Poll on Healthy Aging says a third of Michigan adults 50 and older have jobs. The study reveals that working later in life benefits wellbeing but comes with several challenges.

Jeffrey Kullgren, director of the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging, shares some key findings from the study.

“We found among working adults age 50 and older, work has positive impacts on physical health, mental health and overall well-being. And interestingly, these outcomes are especially pronounced for working adults age 65 and older,” he says.

Some benefits include giving older adults a chance to have social connections— which is important with loneliness on the rise among older adults—and giving them a sense of purpose.

“People who have a greater sense of purpose in life are likely to have lower levels of things like depression, anxiety. So we think it’s likely that working among older adults can help fulfill some of those needs,” he says. 

Kullgren says people surveyed reported facing barriers such as lack of job training in certain areas, transportation and having chronic health issues.  

“In particular for employers, older adults who face some of these kinds of challenges in their ability to work can be better supported by having access to ample time off to attend healthcare appointments,” he explains. 

Kullgren adds that employers should work to provide trainings that address the needs of older adults, and time off for caregiving responsibilities.

Another way to help older employees is to provide alternative transportation options to help get employees to work, whether its working with public or private services. 

The study also found there are regional differences in Michigan’s older working demographic. There are more older adults working in Southeast Michigan than in the rest of the state.  

Adults with higher levels of education and income reported that they were able to work remotely or in a hybrid format more often, which helps them overcome physical limits. On the other hand, older adults with less education who work in certain sectors that  require in-person attendance will deal with a lack of mobility and other challenges. 

“[We need to] optimize work environments for older adults, to accommodate some of the unique needs people may face as they age,” concludes Kullgren.

– WDET’s Natalie Albrecht contributed to this report.