Maggie Wilkerson fears the day she can’t get accommodations for her disability.

Wilkerson is an art student that uses accommodations almost every day. She holds one of two seats in Undergraduate Student Government representing students with disabilities. She goes to class, takes exams and completes projects like any student. Accommodations reduce the amount of barriers for Wilkerson to be able to graduate. 

“It’s not to make my life easier. It’s to make my life possible,” Wilkerson said. “I think the miscommunication is that people think accommodations are setting me up for success, when in actuality, they’re just leading me up to achieve success the same way that every other student here can,” she said. 

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For students like Wilkerson, diversity, equity and inclusion programs can be the difference between getting the support they need in college and not graduating. Programs and scholarships that could be labeled DEI help students financially as well as emotionally.  

“I feel like education should be a fundamental human right. I feel like every single person here has earned their place here and deserves to be here,” Wilkerson said.

On Jan. 21, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order stating that DEI policies must be removed from universities. He then gave states 10 days on April 3, 2025, to end DEI policies with the threat of removing funding. More than 50 universities have been targeted and some have had their funding revoked as a result.  

SIU is not one of them — for now – though at least one organization, Defending Education, has filed a complaint with the Department of Education over 33 of its scholarships and programs. Over the course of the past two months, the Daily Egyptian spoke with five students and other officials about their views on DEI.  

“Every single person here needs to take a second and know their rights and know what they are entitled to here. I always encourage people like if you’re struggling, reach out to a friend… Because as soon as you have knowledge, there isn’t a single person on this planet that can take it away,” Wilkerson said.  

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DEI in higher education 

Dan Mahony, president of SIU, is committed to keeping DEI policies in place at Southern Illinois University. “I think once you get rid of, say, all of that… They’re less likely to feel like they belong at the university, they’re less likely to graduate,” Mahony said.  

SIU offers a wide variety of programs that are funded through DEI initiatives. Among them: the Student Multicultural Resource Center, the Diversity Advisory Council and Office for Access and Accommodations, and scholarships such as David Eddingfield Memorial Scholarship that goes to a female junior or senior engineering student and the Support Black Undergraduate Education Endowed Scholarship.  

“There is a lot of impact of getting rid of a lot of those programs and initiatives that were put in place basically to make sure all students felt supported,” Mahony said.  

Mahony said the university will not shift course unless directed to under law. “We were following the law before President Trump was in office. Anything that’s come either the executive order, the Dear Colleague letter that came on Feb. 14, none of that changes the law. The law (is) still the law.”  

A common misconception is that DEI is affirmative action. The National Law Review defines affirmative action as “a legal policy created to address historical injustices and discrimination by providing opportunities to underrepresented groups,” where DEI “encompasses a broader framework aimed at fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is valued, equity is ensured, and everyone feels a sense of belonging.”  

Scholarships are a key resource 

SIU offers over $20 million to undergraduates a year in scholarships. Some are open to any student based on general criteria like grade level and academic standing. But in some cases, the scholarships are set aside for specific demographic groups, such as for women or students of color or those with disabilities.  

One common specification is that most scholarships the school offers require the student to be 26 years or younger. Paula Horton, the senate chair for nontraditional students for Undergraduate Student Government needed scholarships to afford tuition. “There are scholarships that I absolutely qualify for, and there’s that little blurb ‘must be under 26’… especially the big ones, they require you to be college age,” she said.  

Horton recently received a scholarship from SIU Women’s Club. Before she received the scholarship, she was feeling hopeless. She wasn’t going to be able to get any money back on her bursar.  “I’m not going to have any money to buy books. I’m not going to be able to… and I started spinning out, and I started having anxiety,” Horton said.  

King Haynes, the current DEI chair for USG, said SIU students are fortunate. Through social media and news sources, students have seen what has been happening with other universities. “People are getting scholarships taken away to where they’re not able to pay for school, not able to return from school,” Haynes said.  

So far, no SIU students have lost access to scholarships based on Trump’s directive.  

The concern with scholarships goes deeper. Olive Vowell, a student with disabilities that holds a senate chair for USG and sits on the Student Health Advisory Board, said that those with disabilities who receive social security benefits are not allowed to have more than $2,000 at a time in cash, stocks or bonds.  

“So in many instances, it (is) that the financial barrier is even more significant for disabled students. So I think… keeping scholarship opportunities open is extremely important, especially to those students’ ability to access higher education,” Vowell said.  

DEI protects students from hate 

Another aspect of DEI is that it provides a support system. SIU’s Office for Access and Accommodations offers accommodations and students can apply for them RSOs such as the Saluki Rainbow Network and the Black Affairs Council make sure that students do not feel alone and have role models and peers that they can talk to.  

Johnathon Crane, the president of the Saluki Rainbow Network, said that they face funding challenges for the RSO. Despite the lack of funding, many LGBTQIA+ communities have worked together to support each other.  

“We’ve always figured out ways to do things that includes our members, whether, you know, we band together to make sure someone can keep going to school… help them get some food, maybe pay off a couple bills, make sure that they can be here next semester, finish off that degree,” Crane said.  

Their biggest concern outside of scholarships is removing this protection that prevents hate.  

“Removing protections allows people to fall in gaps, and also allows people who were never truly going to fight with us if something happened on campus, to just let it happen,” Crane stated.  

Crane has been in the Saluki Rainbow Network for four years. They mention that it is common to receive threats from others and it is something that the club expects at events. 

“Our last drag show this semester… people were calling to cut off my board members’ heads. And this is very normal for us as a group, we deal with this every year,” Crane said.  

“When I say the whole, you know, our death threats and stuff like that, people have no idea, but it’s when we start calling out for help, when we’re desperately saying there is something wrong, someone has been hurt, and no one wants to touch us because we’re trans or we’re queer, or we’re BIPOC, or we have a mental disorder, or maybe because I’m a woman or something like that,” Crane said.

“It’s a fear that the removal of something that is, yes, you know, ingrained in just being like scholarships and stuff like that, it’s not about the money, it’s about the fact that this is removing the protections against people, true human beings, and we need these protections in order to fight back when something bad happens on this campus and in the community.”  

Some universities across the country, though not SIU, have been renaming their DEI policies and making them more general in hopes of remaining in compliance with Trump’s orders. 

“I understand the desire to hide those so that people will be less likely to come after them, but for me, that’s what I see it as. I don’t think that it’s something that will ultimately push us forward,” Vowell said. 

The mental health of campus 

SIU students who spoke to the DE expressed low morale amid the current political climate.

“This semester has been awful, like, truthfully, like the fear and the anxiety surrounding the politics of the world, specifically the politics of United States, and like listening to all of the negative things that people have to say about my existence and the existence of those around me, I would say, like, on a personal level, it seems like we’re all struggling. It seems like everybody is sad or mad or concerningly happy with the state of things,” said Wilkerson, the USG senate chair for students with disabilities.   

Different communities across campus have found support in each other; however, students with disabilities do not have an official RSO. They have disability support services, but not much more.  

“It’s a large community of people, but it’s not a very, from my perspective… it’s not a very like, connected group of people,” Wilkerson said.  

One goal she has for next year is to create this support system. “I would love to have more people in my life that share similar experiences to me, and I would love to be able to share my experiences with other people,” Wilkerson said.  

“I feel a lot of anxiety. I think, especially as a visibly disabled person,” Vowell said. “I think that because I do have this visible indicator, people tend to feel comfortable sharing their thoughts on that, on that topic, with me, and I felt a lot of anxiety and uncertainty, particularly when it comes to accessibility services… Will funding be revoked? Will they change the way that it works?” 

Haynes is hopeful though. He mentioned not hearing anything about SIU giving up on their DEI policies. “I actually find people backing it more than anything,” he said. 

Most of the students interviewed are hopeful in SIU’s commitment to DEI. 

“I think there’s a lot of opportunity here. I think there is so much opportunity to be the school that does things differently,” Wilkerson said.  

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