The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion will be renamed the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Access, Civil Rights, and Community, effective Jan. 1. A Thursday Massmail from Chancellor Charles Lee Isbell Jr. announced the new name along with a restructuring of the office, which is pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.
“The office structure and name are changing,” Isbell wrote in the Massmail. “The mission of the office and our institutional commitment to supporting the success of our entire university community are not changing.”
The structural changes include “clarifying some internal reporting lines,” according to OVCDEI’s Interim Vice Chancellor Designate, Gioconda Guerra Pérez. In an email statement to The Daily Illini, she explained that its services and resources will remain the same.
“This is not a response to any specific directive of the federal government, but rather out of conversations among campus leadership that the office should have a name that makes its resources and mission clearer,” Pérez wrote.
President Donald Trump has consistently targeted diversity, equity and inclusion over the last year, along with other policies regarding higher education — many of which have included funding cuts.
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The University addressed these federal DEI directives in an April Massmail, announcing it would begin altering website language and reviewing opportunities that “may provide a specific benefit to an individual.”
A July memorandum from Attorney General Pam Bondi clarified that entities receiving federal funding must ensure compliance with federal antidiscrimination laws. It cites various “unlawful DEI practices,” including preferential treatment for scholarships based on race.
In September, the UI System removed race and gender from financial aid consideration.
Three other offices will also be reorganized per Thursday’s Massmail: the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Administrative Strategy and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation.
“This reorganization will not reduce the workforce but rather clarify reporting lines to reduce the number of direct reports to the chancellor,” Isbell wrote in the Massmail. “I strongly believe this structure will benefit our faculty, staff, and students and give us a stronger foundation on which to fulfill our missions.”
Alterations to these three offices, also pending approval by the Board of Trustees, will be effective Nov. 16.
