CIE hosts Diversity Dialogues on the state of higher education

By Sophia Oppedisano Editor-in-Chief As students, faculty, and staff return to college campuses across the country this fall, uncertainty about the Trump administration’s adamant demands to close the Department of Education have unsettled the start of the new school year. The Center for Inclusive Excellence (CIE) hosted its first Diversity Dialogue session of the year titled, “The People’s Education: What’s at Stake if the U.S. Department of Education Closes?” Sept. 18. Diversity Dialogues is a CIE initiative aimed at creating productive, insightful dialogue between students and faculty about challenging topics that affect the daily lives of Framingham State community members. Students and faculty took this opportunity to express concerns on DEI and Title IX rollbacks as well as what will happen to their student loans if the Department of Education should close. James Cressey, a professor of education, led the discussion. Cressey said he has worked in the higher education setting, teaching courses on special education and social-emotional learning, but he has also spent time in K-12 school districts as a school psychologist. Cressey acknowledged that the threat of a Department of Education closure is “emotionally heavy and so worrisome.” He noted how confusing and complicated it can be to sift through a near-constant influx of information on the topic. While he is “​​not an expert in federal education policy,” Cressey said, “I want to force myself to get more educated, even though I have a Ph.D. in education and work with the amazing education faculty, there’s still some avoidance around this topic.” During the conversation, Cressey gave a brief history of the Department of Education as well as an overview of what the department actually does and what students and faculty are becoming increasingly worried about as news becomes more troublesome. For students, Cressey indicated concerns over financial aid as well as the slashing of grants for student and faculty research. “There's a swath of educational research that happens that's funded and overseen [by the department]. A lot of folks in my field of being professors of education have had their grants already cut,” Cressey said. In addition, Cressey said there is a pattern wherein the Department of Education has trended toward cutting grants that promote DEI initiatives. “Even if the department doesn't go away, but if it becomes an anti-DEI Education Department - is that worse?” he asked. CIE Director Jerome Burke asked what it would be like for students at Framingham State if “things shift radically around equal access and discrimination issues.” Dean for the College of Education and Social and Behavioral Sciences Stephanie Logan raised a concern about sex and gender discrimination in response to Burke. She noted an executive order that could be carried out by the Department of Education that defines sex as strictly male and female. Logan emphasized the potential damage it could cause a student who has a preferred name to have their legal or “dead” name be called on during attendance in class or appear on their documents. In light of this, Burke and Cressey discussed the pressure on colleges nationwide to close or rename their offices that have been specifically designed to support students who deal with issues such as sex and gender or DEI. Cressey said he wants to make sure students at Framingham State know their resources and support for helping them deal with this potential issue will not go away but noted “it's not very reassuring when you do see what's happening at other institutions. “We're going to do what we can do for each other,” he said. Associate Provost Keri Ann Sather-Wagstaff also responded to Logan with reassurance and pride related to Framingham State’s response to Title IX rollbacks by the Trump Administration regarding gender identity. Kim Dexter, assistant vice president of human resources, issued two separate statements outlining the federal guidelines versus the state guidelines on gender discrimination.