Overview
- The system directed its three campuses—Chicago, Urbana-Champaign and Springfield—to remove race, color, national origin and sex from consideration in hiring, promotion, tenure and student financial aid decisions.
- Officials cited increased legal risk as the reason for the change and noted that the timing and operational details may vary by campus.
- UIC told units that donor- and institutionally funded scholarships must be reviewed and revised to remove those criteria, with awards approved before Oct. 14 unaffected.
- UIC said faculty may no longer include diversity, equity and inclusion statements in tenure dossiers and plans to replace its Affirmative Action Plan with a Nondiscrimination and Merit-Based Hiring Plan.
- The UIC faculty union criticized the directive as bypassing shared governance and warned of retroactive impacts on current promotion cases, as national pressure on DEI persists despite an August court order rescinding federal funding threats and a White House compact that no colleges have accepted.