Community Updates

Executive Orders

• Ending Radical and Wasteful DEI Programs and Preferencing (January 20, 2025)

Memos from the Office of Management and Budget

• Rescission of M-25-13 (January 29, 2025)
• Question and Answer  (January 28, 2025)
• Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance (January 27, 2025)

Executive Orders

• Ending Radical and Wasteful DEI Programs and Preferencing, issued on January 20, 2025, directs all federal agencies to “terminate, to the maximum extent allowed by law… all ‘equity-related’ grants or contracts; and all DEI or DEIA performance requirements for employees, contractors, or grantees.’” The Order further directed all agencies to provide the OMB Director with a list of the Federal grantees who were awarded Federal funding “to provide or advance DEI, DEIA, or ‘environmental justice’ programs, services, or activities since January 20, 2021.”
• Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity, issued on January 21, 2025, directs all executive departments and agencies “to enforce our longstanding civil-rights laws and to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities,” and directs the Attorney General to provide recommendations on how to do so. The Order further requires the Attorney General to identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations of various entities, including institutions of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars.
  
  The United States Office of Attorney General issued additional guidance on this Order on February 5, 2025, in which it clarified the Order applies to “programs, initiatives, or policies that discriminate, exclude, or divide individuals based on race or sex,” and that the Order “does not prohibit educational, cultural, or historical observances-such as Black History Month, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, or similar events-that celebrate diversity, recognize historical contributions, and promote awareness without engaging in exclusion or discrimination.” 

Impact on the Simmons Community

Simmons is monitoring these orders and guidance and all agency action stemming from them and is working with all potentially impacted University offices.

Executive Orders

• Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats (January 20, 2025)

Impact on the Simmons Community

This order requires an increased focus be placed on the visa process, including the vetting process, including for individuals seeking an F-1 visa. This provision could make the process of applying for a visa more difficult and impact processing times.

Executive Orders

• Protecting the American People Against Invasion (January 20, 2025)
  This Order directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to “ensure the efficient and expedited removal of aliens from the United State.” The Department of Homeland Security further rescinded previously-established guidance exempting schools and other spaces from immigration enforcement activity. Accordingly, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can now treat these locations, including college campuses, the same as other locations. 

Impact on the Simmons Community

Government officers or officials entering Simmons' campus will generally go directly to the University's Public Safety Office (Palace Road Building [Building B], First Floor). 

Simmons cannot prohibit federal immigration enforcement officers from coming on campus to enforce federal law. Simmons Public Safety will fulfill the requirements of a judicial warrant presented for immigration enforcement purposes in the manner ordered by the Court issuing the warrant. 

What to do if you are approached by a government agency official or officer who requests non-emergency-related access to a campus space or information about a Simmons community member

In the unlikely circumstance that you are directly approached by a government agency official or officer asking to access any campus space(s) for non-emergency purposes, you should:

• First, advise the government agency official or officer: “Simmons has a protocol to ensure that all requests are addressed appropriately. I am to direct you to Public Safety, who will assist you.”
• Then, walk the government agency official or officer to the Simmons University Public Safety Office (Palace Road Building, First Floor). Alternatively, you can call Public Safety to request that they join you at your location.

Simmons employees should also notify the General Counsel’s Office (x2501 and/or x3289) that they have directed a government agency official or officer to Public Safety. 

What you should do as a Simmons employee if you receive a written or telephone request for information about a Simmons community member

• Written request: Email the request to the General Counsel’s Office. Wait to provide the requested information until instructed to do so by the General Counsel’s Office.
• Telephone request: Provide the caller with the phone number for the General Counsel’s Office. Wait to provide the requested information until instructed to do so by the General Counsel’s Office.

The General Counsel’s Office and Public Safety will always carefully navigate the requirements of the Family Educational Right and Privacy Act (FERPA), Massachusetts law, and University policy when responding to requests for information from government and law enforcement agencies. 

Executive Orders

• Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government (“Defending Women Order”, January 20, 2025)
  This Order states it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female (as defined in the Order). This Order eliminates the consideration of gender under Title IX; however, Simmons continues to comply with Massachusetts law regarding gender discrimination and harassment.
• Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports (February 5, 2025)
  Prohibits Universities from allowing any individual not meeting the definition of female set forth in the Defending Women Order from playing on University women’s athletic teams or utilizing University women’s locker rooms.

Impact on the Simmons Community and Athletic Team

We understand that members of our community may have concerns about the NCAA’s updated eligibility criteria and participation rules for institutions and athletes. We encourage any student who feels they might be impacted by the NCAA policy or who has questions about it to contact Director of Athletics & Recreation Erica Schuling at [email protected] or Assistant General Counsel Sara Simberg at [email protected].