Amid Trump scrutiny, UW cut ties with group that helps people of color

The University of Wisconsin-Madison defended its partnership with an organization that encourages people of color to pursue graduate degrees but still canceled it after the Trump administration launched an investigation, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found in recently released records.

The documents show the back-and-forth between the U.S. Department of Education and UW-Madison lawyers during the investigation, offering a rare window into how the federal government is reshaping civil rights enforcement in education.

UW-Madison and the government hashed out an agreement earlier this year to end the investigation. The university also promised to identify partnerships with other organizations that restrict participation based on race, and either end those relationships or explain why they wouldn’t.

But UW-Madison won’t say which additional groups, if any, it has severed ties with in response to the Trump administration.

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The investigations focused on universities’ partnerships with the PhD Project. The nonprofit organization encourages people of color to earn business doctorate degrees, according to the National Postdoctoral Association.

Learn how the project’s goals to provide a pipeline of more diverse talent into the business sphere were targeted by the Trump administration.

31 schools agreed to stop working with the project earlier this year.

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