PSU Diversity Office Prepares for DEI Pushback
Kay Bailey, Dylan Tulk
She/Her, He/Him
Editor-in-Chief, Staff Writer
1/23/24
President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion don’t immediately apply to PSU, but its office of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access – the IDEA Center – is still nervous.
An executive order signed Monday shuts down “DEI… mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government.” On Tuesday, Trump signed another, forcing all federal agencies to place DEI employees on paid leave.
Even though it receives some federal funding, PSU is not a federal organization, and IDEA Center staff members Alberto Ramos and Paige Paradise are not included in Trump’s mass layoff. The fate of DEI programming in NH hangs in the air, but for now, no drastic shifts will face the campus community. Still, Alberto Ramos, Chief Diversity Officer and Director of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access, worries the politics around DEI may force the IDEA Center to change their approach.
In large part, those changes could be semantic. “If they don’t like us using the word diversity, what can we use instead?” the IDEA Center’s Assistant Director, Paige Paradise, said. Paradise is interested in the opportunity language changes could allow for the IDEA Center to find ways to talk about diversity “without talking about it.”
According to Ramos, Plymouth State is working to rename the organizations and officers working in DEI so they can retain the services they provide and “not be under so much scrutiny.” For instance, the parts of Ramos’s job title referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion could be removed, but his job description would stay the same. “We’re willing to change as needed,” he said.
At 3 years old, the IDEA Center is relatively new compared to similar DEI organizations at Keene and UNH. Broadly, the office aims to create a more diverse, inclusive environment for students, staff and faculty through education, scholarships, and events, among other things. The IDEA Center also supports campus affinity groups. “The main priority here is to make sure that students feel safe here and that we are able to offer these opportunities and advocate for them,” Paradise said.
“We have programs like the diversity scholars program that is open to any student,” Ramos said. “We never limit it based on anyone’s identity, but I think that program is appealing to students from diverse backgrounds.”
Ramos is determined to do everything he can to protect the work he does through the IDEA center. He regularly joins the NH Executive Council with other chief diversity officers at Keene State College. They closely monitor anti-DEI bills, and have testified in the State House in support of DEI.
Moving forward, the New Hampshire legislature, motivated by the White House, may continue to target DEI programming. Ramos fears the State House may go after DEI by cutting budgets without necessarily banning it outright. “I think one of the strategies [the NH legislature] wants to take is reducing the budget by the amount that we’re spending on diversity initiatives.”
Ramos is unsure, however, if “the USNH system is ready to fight back” when federal or state laws crack down on DEI programs. Protecting DEI isn’t USNH’s topmost priority and “I can’t say confidently that USNH is ready to protect [DEI] at all costs” Ramos said. USNH’s commitment to DEI has been steadily increasing over the years; compared to public institutions that have cut their DEI programs in Florida, Texas and Utah, USNH has spent between $6 to $9 million on DEI across the campuses of Keene State, PSU, and UNH. But with the risk of losing state funding, Ramos is not sure if USNH’s commitment to DEI will “withstand the political pressure.”
Promoting PSU’s DEI programs has been a useful recruitment and retention strategy, especially for students and potential students from rural areas with less diversity funding, and cutting DEI programs could potentially discourage those students from attending PSU, according to Ramos. “When prospective students for Plymouth State are wanting to know what kind of supports are there for students of color, what supports there are for LGBTQ students, I think those things are super important for recruitment and retention of students,” he said.
Both Paradise and Ramos said that student safety and access to resources for student advocacy is more important than ever given the current political climate. “A lot of our campus communities [are] feeling really nervous and just unsafe,” Ramos said. Still, the IDEA Center is determined. “We’re gonna find ways to make it work regardless,” Paradise said.