Student leaders, faculty and members of the Rowan community filled Boyd Recital Hall on March 7 for a university wide open forum. Beginning at 3:30 p.m., the town hall “Working Toward Continued Excellence: Compassion In The Midst of Change” saw college administration addressing questions and concerns among the community surrounding the university’s recent action of removing all diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI) language on its website.

The meeting comes one week after the university’s website underwent a major shift to scrub its online pages clean of any mention and language surrounding DEI and reorganization of its programs. Rowan’s change in DEI policies was in response to a new federal directive issued by President Donald Trump’s administration to end all DEI efforts for colleges nationally or risk losing federal funding.

As one of the state’s largest public research universities, Rowan enrolls nearly 23,000 students and has a budget of $753 million dollars, the failure to comply would’ve seen 220 million dollars at risk of being lost. Recently, Columbia University saw $400 million dollars in grants and contracts being cancelled by the Trump administration for failure to suppress anti-Semitism on its campus.

The 90-minute forum saw 10 members of Rowan’s administration seated on stage, addressing questions and concerns from student organization leaders, faculty, and other Rowan community members. The panel was composed of administrative members, including Provost Anthony Lowman, Dean of Students Kevin Koett, Dominique Pierson,  Melissa Wheatcroft, and others.  

After giving a few remarks the panel opened the floor, and attendees lined up one by one to the microphones in the two isles to voice their frustrations with the university’s handling of the changes and the lack of transparency issues affecting marginalized communities.

“When you look at the room, you see a lack of student presence here. You see a lot of faculty, staff, and administrators,” said Zackary Brown, president of the Student Government Association (SGA). “I see a lot of student leaders here from different clubs and organizations, but I do believe that there’s an apposition when we host this town hall and there’s a lack of students in such a small space and then we have a time constraint on it? Especially when people are concerned about who they are and the power that they have.”

Many students, like vice president of Rowan’s National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) Sage Tawfeeq, felt as though they were left in the dark about how these changes would affect their life on campus. Many received an email notification about the town hall forum taking place only three hours prior to the event.

“I wasn’t aware of how the DEI and executive orders were impacting certain DEI laws. I didn’t know why they were doing it, and I wasn’t really informed. I wasn’t seeing any apparent changes because, being completely honest, it was really obvious that the school was trying to keep it on hush, hush,” said Tawfeeq.

While many feel that the administration has to reconsider and reconstruct the way in which the college communicates to the university, some voiced that these changes begin with placing student leaders in the discussion at the decision-making table. 

“Put students at the table, when you make all these changes with faculty only. The only feedback you’re gonna get is from faculty. There’s 4,000 faculty, there’s 24,000 kids you know? The faculty do so much for the school and so are their voices but so are the student voices. You need both at the table to make changes for the school. I don’t care If it’s me or the SGA President. It doesn’t matter but someone has gotta be at the decision-making table,” said Ethan Reilly, a sophomore elementary education major and emergency medical technician (EMT) at Rowan. 

During the forum, Reilly also shared that Rowan’s Wellness Center has seen an uptick in calls regarding student mental health symptoms like anxiety, fear, and depression. However, not all calls the center has received are correlated to the DEI changes. For some faculty and staff, changes to DEI policies go beyond policy debate. It’s a troubling reality that affects students’ well-being and campus culture. Those working closely with students, especially in support services, have witnessed firsthand how these shifts create uncertainty. 

“This is an unfortunate reality that we had to face. That I’ve been seeing in the work that I do at my office, but also conversation-wise and to make sure that our students are protected, but my real honest opinion is it’s upsetting, it’s disgusting and it really hurts a lot of aspects of all of our students in our campus culture and our community,” said Raymond Wos Jr., a part-time staff member at Rowan’s Accessibility Services who wishes the university would pushback on the executive orders being issued out by the current presidential administration. 

“When you are getting the information that the former Division of DEI or whatever we are calling it now is getting dissolved, that sentence alone is terrifying. To say then, no it’s being restructured. There’s people going to different places, nobody’s losing jobs. Things will continue, but they are being moved around. That’s a little more comforting but people have to get past the headline to read into that, ” said Dr. Whitney Cox, assistant teaching professor in the Philosophy and World Religions department. 

Amid concerns about future diversity-focused organizations and student groups, university officials are emphasizing that these organizations will continue to thrive. They assure students that clubs centered around shared identities and interests will still be recognized and supported, as the right to assemble and associate remains protected.

“Those groups are open to all. There’s still going to be groups, we’re still going to have Women and Weights, we’re still going to have Black engineers. We’re still going to have all the clubs and organizations that SGA does and fabulous job at supporting, representing exceptions. Those aren’t going to change, part of that is the reality again that there is a law exception that people have the right to assembly and association. That’s not gonna change, so we are not saying to our student body you can no longer have this affinity group as a club organization. There is a process through SGA where students can apply to become a registered and recognized student organization, that is gonna continue, they’re still gonna be funded, et cetera. So I don’t see any changes coming related to student organizations. They are part of why we are proud to be the university we are and part of what makes us special,” said Koett.

Koett’s statement comes one month after Student Justice for Palestine (SJP) saw an indefinite suspension from the university after a far-right Facebook group flooded the Dean of Students Office with calls, raising concerns about one of the club’s flyers. It led to overall censorship and the First Amendment right to free speech to be revoked temporarily. For a brief period, the student-run organization was no longer considered a recognized student organization that could be affiliated with Rowan and was unable to access campus spaces or facilities or use any university funds for any purpose. 

This Monday President Trump issued a warning to all colleges and universities that the pending deportation of a Palestinian activist who aided in leading protests at Columbia University would be the first “of many to come” as his administration works to crack down on campus demonstrations that are against Israel and the current war in Gaza. 

As the campus navigates these shifts, concerns about inclusion and community remain at the forefront. However, university leaders are encouraging students to stay engaged and remember their worth. 

“Change can lead to disengagement, social challenges, and decline in well-being. I urge you not to feel diminished-you are valued, and your well-being is a priority. Do not allow this change to diminish your sense of belonging,” said Kha’ Sadler, Associate Provost for Wellness & Inclusivity. 

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