The Graduate Employees’ Organization held a town hall on Wednesday to discuss the ramifications of the Trump administration’s funding freezes. The meeting was held largely to provide support for the anxiety graduate students were feeling regarding the federal orders.
One specific area of concern was the erasure of diversity, equity and inclusion and its associated consequences. On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order attempting to end government funding toward programs promoting DEI. This order was blocked on Feb. 21 by a federal judge; however, it may have implications for research moving forward.
Arthur Paganini, officer for GEO and graduate student studying mechanical engineering, explained the concerns that many graduate students have related to DEI keywords potentially auto-triggered in grant proposals.
“From what we’re hearing from people, the administration is looking to cut grants from people where the grants for their research include certain keywords that they deem ‘woke,’” Paganini said. “So if the grant has the words gender or diversity, some people are saying that these are being automatically triggered. In addition to it just being ridiculous that they’re cutting these grants, they’re also cutting things by accident that use those words.”
For example, consider a graduate student in plant sciences studying “biodiversity.” Although the meaning of “diversity” in DEI is different from the meaning of “diversity” in biodiversity, there’s a growing concern that such words could be caught in “auto-trigger” computer programs and flagged when the Trump administration is reviewing federal grants.
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Paganini clarified he doesn’t know the exact details of how these “auto-trigger” programs operate or the extent to which specific words might be flagged. However, he reiterated that most people at the GEO town hall were worried about not only the “auto-trigger” but the wider attacks on DEI.
GEO is also actively advocating for the rights of international graduate students who face an increasingly unstable situation. Suzanne Basson, co-president of GEO and graduate student studying musicology, offered her perspective as an international student.
“Our visa status is dependent on our student status, so if I lose my ability to be a student, I can no longer be in the country,” Basson said. “It is something that international students are a lot more scared of, and I think the administration is using this exact position of us being so precarious against us, to not be willing to organize, not go to protest. It’s just once again a tool to divide us.”
Concerns have increased due to Trump taking a harsh stance on campus protests. On Tuesday, he posted to Truth Social, “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came.”
Last semester, the University revised its protest policies, introducing additional disciplinary measures for protestors. This drew concern from campus RSOs and the ACLU, who issued a letter advising the University to respect free speech.
However, because GEO is a union, it is afforded protections that campus RSOs don’t have.
“As a labor union, we are protected, we have certain rights, we’re allowed to organize, we’re allowed speech protections and we’re very conscientious of what we’re allowed to do legally,” Paganini said. “We’re not advocating for anything that is not allowed, but a labor union is a protected institution. We are committed to the rights of our members, their rights to a safe work environment.”
Basson agreed and added that as a labor union, GEO falls under the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act and the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, enshrining GEO with protections.
“That gives us extra protections,” Basson said. “For example, your employer is not allowed to come in and do severe union busting as we see in cases like Amazon workers or Starbucks workers.”
Due to these protections and the support that unions like GEO provide, Basson said that she specifically sought out universities with a graduate student union when applying internationally. In challenging times, Basson relies on this network for support.
“I think a lot of us are feeling scared at the moment and unsure of what the future holds, but if we come together and we organize and we stand together, we can protect each other,” Basson said. “The reason I am not as scared as I think other international workers on campus is because I have a strong sense of community. People in GEO have my back, and in that same way, I have other people’s back.”
Paganini stressed that these issues have consequences beyond researchers and academia. To challenge such policies, Paganini encouraged collective action.
“This is Trump’s billionaire agenda going after working and oppressed people all over this country, and it has wide-reaching effects, way too long for us to talk about here, but GEO is doing its part,” Paganini said. “We’re grad students, and we’re leveraging our power to protect the people we’re committed to protecting. This is something that we can all work together on.”
