Can College-Prep Programs Survive Trump’s War on DEI?

As a high school student from the Crenshaw District, a working-class Los Angeles neighborhood, Ziane Djenidi wasn’t sure about life after graduation. A child of immigrants, neither of his parents went to college, and Djenidi hadn’t decided if he would go, either.

Then, some school friends told him about the VIP Scholars Program, a University of California-Los Angeles initiative which prepares marginalized students for college. Through the program, Djenidi says, he got to visit the Westwood campus and talk with students of color, like him.

LEARN MORE: Trump’s DEI Rollback and Its Ripple Effect on K-12 Education

“That sort of opened my eyes to the importance of higher education,” he says.

Now a rising senior at UCLA, Djenidi is majoring in neuroscience, dreaming of becoming a doctor. But the program that took him from South Central L.A. to the brink of medical school is on the chopping block — due to President Donald Trump’s crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion. 

Programs in Jeopardy

The VIP Scholars program is among dozens of college-prep initiatives that could lose federal funding because they create pipelines from high school to higher education for disadvantaged students, most of them Black. Centered on an executive order Trump signed banning DEI in January, Education Secretary Linda McMahon made it plain in a “Dear Colleague” sent in February.

McMahon advised colleges that it is “impermissible for schools to have DEI programs that are intended to advantage one race over another.” Schools that don’t eliminate such programs, the letter states, could lose federal funds and grants. The White House has proposed to cut $163 billion to non-defense discretionary spending for the 2026 fiscal year. 

Department of Education initiatives that support low-income, first-generation and disabled students like TRIO and GEAR UP are in jeopardy, even though such programs have bipartisan support. If they are cut in the upcoming 2026 budget, fewer marginalized students would get the  support and resources for college success. 

As one of the several colleges that has support programs for first generation, low income and historically underrepresented students, UCLA could lose more than $1 billion in federal funding.The program works with 11 partner schools in metro Los Angeles and is predominately Black. 

Jonli Tunstall, a 2005 UCLA graduate and the director for the program, said she felt “gutted” and “vulnerable” when she found out that the VIP Scholars Program was at risk.

“We went from celebrating our 20 year anniversary and dreaming about the big party we were going to have at the beginning of the academic year to then knowing that our program was on the chopping block,” Tunstall said. “It felt like my life’s work was being ripped away, and I didn’t have a say in it.”

“Same Thing 20 Years Ago”

Tunstall, who has been a part of VIP Scholars since its inception, said that the program was UCLA’s response to Proposition 209, a ballot initiative which ended affirmative action in California public college admissions. She said attacks on programs that support Black students are nothing new: “It was that same thing 20 years ago when this program started.”

Although VIP Scholars Program staff learned the program would pause starting on June 30 because of university-wide budget cuts, Tunstall said student and faculty fundraising will keep the doors open for two more months.

Across town, the University of Southern California, a private college, works with the Leslie and William McMorrow Neighborhood Academic Initiative, or NAI, a program that prepares 6th- to 12th-grade students from low-income households for colleges in California. Many participants went on to become first-generation college students. 

Sainna Smith, an NAI student program advisor, says that they had to let go of two administrative positions, cut down summer programming and limit generous financial aid packages, but their program has an endowment and is funded through grants, which gives them a bit more security.

Still, ”As a graduate of the program, it is kind of sad to see the opportunities that I had [disappear],” Smith says. “I went to undergrad, [got] my master’s and now finishing my doctorate degree pretty much loan-free because of this program.”

Trump’s war on DEI “is going to have [an impact] on our programming long afterwards,” Smith says. That includes losing philanthropic donors and putting the university in an awkward position: comply with the White House and deny entry to promising Black students, or fight the administration and potentially lose even more federal funding. 

Sounding the Alarm

Meanwhile, Tunstall, the VIP Scholars Program administrator at UCLA, says students and their family members are organizing to preserve the program.

“Our students and family members started mobilizing without being asked,” she says. When official notice went out across the campus, Tunstall says, “they just started going to work. It’s been mind blowing to see.” 

RELATED: Trump’s DEI Ban and the Civil Rights of Black Students

Djenidi, the UCLA student and VIP Scholar, says he has joined several students and alumni in taking action. He’s been sharing the word about donating to the VIP Scholars Program on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. 

Tunstall said she and the other staff and community are at a crossroads. 

“Should we not be able to raise money?” Tunstall said. “Or should we?  Do we keep knocking on doors to hope for funding? What if we don’t? How do you pause a program? What does that mean for the students and the family members that are in the middle of it? What is the staff going to do? I don’t know that we’ve fully figured that part out yet.”

The post ‘Can College Prep Programs Survive Trump’s War on DEI‘ originally appeared on Word In Black.