To comply with demands from the administration of President Donald Trump, Milwaukee Area Technical College will eliminate four positions from its Office of Multicultural Services.
That office will also go by a new name: The Office of Community Impact.
The four staff impacted, whose positions have been eliminated, will lose their jobs. They are encouraged to reapply for newly created jobs in the community impact office or jobs elsewhere in the college, according to a statement from MATC.
“Fulfilling our mission to serve all students in our community while adjusting to recent guidance from the U.S. Department of Education requires that we redefine roles and responsibilities within the college based on operational needs,” reads a notice sent to employees on Aug. 20.
In a statement, MATC cited federal efforts to investigate, or eliminate funding for schools that “employ race-conscious practices,” or support jobs “with duties that provide services exclusively to students based on race or ethnicity.”
Federal education officials argue DEI programs are themselves racist and illegal, and created in response to a “false premise that the United States is built upon ‘systemic and structural racism.'”
“If an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another person because of that person’s race, the educational institution violates the law,” reads federal guidance for educational institutions released in February.
In a statement, MATC said it has been working since then to comply.
MATC removed the page dedicated to the Office of Multicultural Services from the school’s website on Aug. 21.
Before MATC began making changes to comply with federal guidance, the school’s website previously stated that the multicultural office provided services specifically for African American, American Indian, Asian American and Hispanic students.
For example, a student services specialist for Asian American students could speak Hmong and Lao as well as English, the website said. The African American Student Services Office provided case management focused on improving student retention and led Black History Month celebrations, among other things.
Several types of student services are available to all MATC students.
Nearly two-thirds of students enrolled, or 63%, identify as people of color. More than half are either African American or Latino, data show.
The two newly created job titles within the Office of Community Impact will focus on “specialized training and community transformation initiatives,” as well as student mentorship.
“This is being done to align with a broader, more integrated framework focused on the overall student experience, emphasizing access, engagement and building intentional community partnerships that serve all students,” the Aug. 20 notification reads.
Cleo Krejci covers K-12 education and workforce development as a Report For America corps member based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at CKrejci@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @_CleoKrejci. For more information about Report for America, visit jsonline.com/rfa.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: MATC cuts four positions in Multicultural Services office under Trump administration DEI guidelines
Reporting by Cleo Krejci, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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