Harvard University announced it will not comply with orders from Donald Trump to cut DEI programs and expel students in involved in pro-Palestinian protests.
How about a not hiring example: A class in Urban Ecology and Planning will have a component on equity and inclusion. Historically, marginalized people were subjected to more pollution, more waste, and even evicted to create services and goods for other people. The notion that everyone is a citizen and deserves thoughtful design, access to public services, and equal burden of pollution is a relatively recent idea.
These orders make those discussions go away. Those considerations in planning and design are “divisive” and support “anti American values”. Although that is not the real reason, the real reason is to go back to the way it was before.
Wheelchair access is DEI. Services for the deaf is DEI. Understanding the impact of diesel corridor pollution is DEI. They do not want you to waste resources and time on trying to do better, because it is not better for them.
How about a not hiring example: A class in Urban Ecology and Planning will have a component on equity and inclusion. Historically, marginalized people were subjected to more pollution, more waste, and even evicted to create services and goods for other people. The notion that everyone is a citizen and deserves thoughtful design, access to public services, and equal burden of pollution is a relatively recent idea.
These orders make those discussions go away. Those considerations in planning and design are “divisive” and support “anti American values”. Although that is not the real reason, the real reason is to go back to the way it was before.
Wheelchair access is DEI. Services for the deaf is DEI. Understanding the impact of diesel corridor pollution is DEI. They do not want you to waste resources and time on trying to do better, because it is not better for them.