The US State Department has proposed suspending 38 universities, including Harvard and Yale, from a federal research partnership programme due to their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices, according to an internal memo and spreadsheet obtained by the Guardian.
The memo, dated 17 November, recommends excluding institutions from the Diplomacy Lab – a programme that pairs university researchers with State Department policy offices – if they “openly engage in DEI hiring practices” or set DEI objectives for candidate pools. The suspension would take effect on 1 January 2026.
Elite institutions such as Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University and the University of Southern California are among those marked for suspension. Other targeted schools include American University, George Washington University, Syracuse University and several University of California campuses.
The Diplomacy Lab, authorised in 2013, connects State Department offices with academic researchers for semester-long projects on foreign policy challenges. The proposed changes would replace suspended institutions with new partners including Liberty University, Brigham Young University, and several schools in Missouri and Texas.
An accompanying spreadsheet uses a colour-coded system to evaluate 75 universities on a four-point scale. Institutions showing “clear DEI hiring policy” are marked in red for suspension, while those with “merit-based hiring with no evidence of DEI” are marked in green to maintain partnerships. Ten new schools were approved to join the programme under the same review.
The State Department did not deny the memo and proposal, with a spokesperson stating: “The Trump Administration is very clear about its stance on DEI. The State Department is reviewing all programs to ensure that they are in line with the President’s agenda.”
