An email triggered alarm bells at Georgia Tech last week after recipients were told to delete diversity, equity and inclusion terminology from the school and its affiliated websites.
Sent by a communications officer in the School of Interactive Computing on Thursday morning, the email informed students and faculty of a “recent directive” from the University System of Georgia to “delete all content” containing specific words, such as “diversity,” “equity” and “inclusion.”
Administrators said the email contained “misinformation” and had not been approved by school leadership. And while some parts of Georgia Tech’s website were taken offline, at least temporarily, the school noted it first made the decision to discontinue DEI programs in 2023, a decision that “included eliminating positions and realigning funding.”
“As a critical research partner for the federal government, Georgia Tech will ensure compliance with all federal and state rules as well as policies set by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia to continue accelerating American innovation and competitiveness,” Georgia Tech said in a statement in response to questions from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Efforts to examine and update our web presence are part of this ongoing work.”
The confusion comes as the Trump administration has worked quickly in its first few weeks to scrub DEI programs from the federal government. Georgia Tech relies heavily on federal funding, receiving more than $1.1 billion in federal grants and contracts last fiscal year, according to a USG annual report. The email from Georgia Tech has made the rounds on social media, prompting many to conclude the school is falling in line with the White House’s push against DEI.
The original email said some pages of the School of Interactive Computing’s website — one of 29 schools at Tech — had been taken down “and will remain down until new copy is submitted.” One example was the faculty hiring page, according to the email; that page displayed an error message as of Friday afternoon but was restored roughly an hour after the AJC inquired about its status.
Early Thursday afternoon, Vivek Sarkar, dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, wrote an email “to address an unfortunate incident that occurred this morning.” The original email contained “misinformation,” Sarkar said. But he did not specify which portions of the email were incorrect, prompting professor Bruce Walker to ask for more clarity.
“For the record, we are all freaking out,” Walker wrote to the dean, noting the original message asked for DEI-related content to be removed from Tech websites. “It seems to me that that is actually happening … I am aware of GT sites that have to do with these topics that are no longer available. (e.g., C-PIES)”
The emails were obtained by the AJC and their authenticity were confirmed by a Georgia Tech spokesperson.
The website for C-PIES, or the Center for Promoting Inclusion and Equity in the Sciences, was unavailable Monday. According to the Wayback Machine, an internet archive tool, the website had been online on Jan. 18 and was offline on Jan. 23. C-PIES was public again as of Tuesday, albeit with revisions.
Sarkar responded that starting in 2022, the institute’s communications teams began conducting a review of all Georgia Tech websites to ensure it “was in compliance with policies set forth by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.”
It’s not clear why the communications officer sent the original email or why some pages were temporarily taken offline. Other public universities in Georgia — such as Kennesaw State, Georgia State and Georgia Gwinnett College — said they did not receive the directive the communications officer described. But Anya Martin, a second-year Ph.D. student in Tech’s interactive computing department, sees a correlation between the email and an executive order from President Donald Trump issued a week before, which targeted DEI programs at colleges and other American institutions.
“I was kind of surprised that it hadn’t happened earlier,” Martin said of the email. “It’s pretty clear at this point that a lot of this movement was spurred by the executive order. I’m aware that the initial email was not approved by the department, but there are websites that are being shuffled around behind the scenes.”
An archived version of the GT website shows on Dec. 9, the words “diversity” and “inclusivity” were used on a page describing the school’s Human-Interactive Computing field of study. Those words are not included in the current page. Similarly, the School of Interactive Computing’s faculty hiring page, which was temporarily offline last week, twice incorporated the word “inclusive” as of late September, according to Wayback Machine; the word is not included in the current version.
Some Republican state leaders, such as Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, in recent years have sought to find out how widespread DEI programs are in the University System. Two years ago, the USG sent Jones a roughly 200-page report showing its schools spent millions of dollars worth of salaries for diversity staffers which included need-based aid for students and programs to fulfill federal requirements.
In a statement, the USG said its schools do not discriminate and treat everyone equally.
“Over the past two years, the system’s governing Board of Regents has strengthened policies designed to uphold those values,” reads the statement. “In keeping with the expectations of the new federal administration, USG complies with all state and federal regulations to ensure decisions are based on merit and equal opportunity for all.”
The Thursday email at least gave researchers some guidance on how Georgia Tech will handle DEI going forward, said Martin. But after the first email was labeled “misinformation,” Martin anticipates another will follow, this time with the full blessing of administrators and perhaps more clarity.
“I’m still kind of expecting a similar email to come out, and then we’re going to have to figure out what’s going on,” said Martin.
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