University of Missouri-Columbia.
Leaders of several identity-based student groups at University of Missouri-Columbia are castigating the university for stripping them of designated funding and forcing them to apply for funding like other groups, The College Fix reports.
The affected organizations include the Legion of Black Collegians, Association of Latin American Students, Asian American Association, Queer Liberation Front, and Four Front. A university spokesperson told The College Fix that the university reclassified the groups as recognized student organizations – or RSOs – in order to comply with “restrictions issued by the U.S. Department of Justice on allocating university resources.”
Leaders of student organizations weren’t buying that. “The decision seems to have been made in fear, and out of a desire to simply comply with whatever is said by the current political administration,” Queer Liberation Front president Cassidy Colston told The Fix via email. “There was no law or rule or regulation used to justify this decision.”
The funding kerfuffle at Mizzou represents a tangible example of how some campuses are navigating a mercurial administration that has wielded its regulatory and investigative power to get institutions to kowtow to its interpretation of the law. It stems from a July 2025 Department of Justice memo that advised institutions of higher education to end “dangerous, demeaning and immoral” discriminatory DEI practices that grant resources on the basis of race, sex, national origin or other characteristics. It cited race-based scholarships and “safe spaces” for students from certain groups as examples of unlawful preferential treatment.
But as students pointed out to The College Fix, the memo itself indicates that it is non-binding. Nevertheless, many campus administrators have been walking on eggshells ever since when it comes to DEI programs to avoid triggering an investigation and risk the loss of federal funding. As The EDU Ledger has reported, even schools with “great legal counsel” have been “worried about being put in the crosshairs” by the administration over their DEI programs and practices.
The administration’s treatment of Harvard represents a current example of what being put in the crosshairs can entail. The administration froze more than $2 billion in federal research funding to Harvard after the institution rebuffed its demands to – among other things – shutter DEI programs and foster more viewpoint diversity. Although a judge blocked the funding freeze, the administration has appealed the decision.
Jamaal Abdul-Alim is a longtime education writer who resides in Washington, D.C. He occasionally teaches journalism and has completed fellowships at the University of Michigan, Columbia University and New America.
