Grinnell College is reviewing its gift agreements, including fellowships and scholarships limited by race or gender, in response to federal actions that threaten to cut funding from institutions maintaining such criteria.
The review, which began in February following a campus-wide message from President Anne Harris, comes amid sweeping changes to higher education institutions under the Trump administration. A Feb. 14 memo from the U.S. Department of Education gave educational institutions that receive federal funds two weeks to end the use of “racial preferences” as a factor in admissions, financial aid, hiring or other areas at the threat of losing funding.
Mark Peltz, the Daniel and Patricia Jipp Finkelman Dean of Careers, Life, and Service, confirmed to The S&B that this review is ongoing. “These various gifts and awards are so central to the College’s teaching and learning mission, and the goal will be to continue to make them available to students moving forward,” Peltz said. “So if that means we have to make some modifications around the edges of some of these, then we will work with the appropriate folks in order to make that happen.”
Grinnell’s review most prominently includes scholarships like the Stouffer Fellowship, currently limited to women pursuing graduate study in Latin America-related diplomacy or policy. Peltz said that although the College is not considering changes to the fellowship’s academic focus, changes to eligibility criteria like the limitation of the scholarship to only women, may still be on the table.
He said he estimates that around 40 such awards are under internal discussion within the Center for Careers, Life, and Service.
“That process is we will work with our colleagues in Development and Alumni Relations,” Peltz said. “And if the donor behind a particular gift is still living, we’ll work with them on any changes or modifications that we might need to make. If the donor is no longer with us, then there is a different governance process that is managed through the Board of Trustees.”
One scholarship, the Laurel Scholarship, formerly only offered yearly to ten Black students from the Chicago area, was recently expanded to include other underrepresented students from the Chicago area. Peltz cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling that ended the use of race as an admissions factor as one of the reasons for the change.
“The Supreme Court decision prompted the change that was behind the Laurel Scholarship, because that is an admission program,” Peltz said. Admission scholarships like the Laurel Scholarship fall under the jurisdiction of the Office of Admission while scholarships and fellowships for current students fall under the Center for Careers, Life, and Service.
Peltz said the review process is ongoing with no set timeline.
“Especially since we’re sort of operating in a mode of information overload right now, things are coming at higher education institutions daily,” he said. “We’re gonna take the time that we need to do this in as thoughtful of fashion as we can. That’s why we’re not rushing to make decisions prematurely. We want to be thoughtful about it.”
The federal directive, part of a broader anti-DEI campaign by the Trump administration, has already affected major institutions. The Department of Education is investigating over 50 colleges, including Harvard University and Columbia University, for allegedly discriminatory DEI programs. Columbia has even entered talks with the federal government over a consent decree that could place the institution under federal monitoring.
Meanwhile, Harvard risks losing more than $9 billion in federal funding unless it dismantles DEI programs and adopts race-neutral admissions and hiring practices. At the University of Michigan, a multimillion-dollar DEI office was shuttered in March under pressure from federal investigators. Brown University has also lost access to hundreds of millions in federal research grants after the administration accused it of violating Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance.
Peltz said the College, which has long framed diversity as a core value, is assessing how best to comply with the law while preserving its institutional values.
