Interim Provost John Lach told the Staff Council on Friday that officials may rename the University’s 10th Diversity Summit — now slated for the spring after two postponements — as officials “reenvision” the event to support the entire community. 

Lach said officials expect to announce a new date for the summit in the coming weeks, adding that the decision to postpone was not a retreat from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, but rather a “timing issue” as they work to incorporate broader themes like civil discourse and what it means to be part of the GW community. Staff Council Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Chair Tricia Greenstein spurred the discussion by asking Lach to address The Hatchet’s recent reporting that some community members see GW as quietly pulling back on DEI efforts amid President Donald Trump’s national crackdown, prompting Lach to affirm that GW is committed to ensuring all students succeed.

“What we’re really doing, it’s not a retreat from DEI, I think it’s more of a bringing together of all of these important factors and thinking about what we can do to support all members of our community and help them thrive here,” Lach said. 

Students last week said GW’s subtle rollback of several DEI initiatives since the start of Trump’s second term, coupled with officials omitting diversity terminology in messaging, indicates the University is yielding to federal pressure.

Officials announced in late September they were postponing the Diversity Summit until spring 2026 to “reimagine a new opportunity” for the event, after already moving it from last spring to this October. GW hosted a diversity summit every academic year since 2015 until the 2024-25 academic year, with officials holding the last iteration in February 2024. 

Lach said he is working with Associate Vice Provost for Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement Jordan West and other officials to revamp the event to explore topics outside of diversity, like civil discourse.

“We’ve been talking a lot about thinking beyond just sort of diversity,” Lach said. 

Lach said he understands the changes made to the Diversity Summit, including potentially changing its name and incorporating broader concepts, create unease for the community, but the changes will reflect a more sweeping focus on community and inclusion. 

“I know that some of these changes, though, do create anxieties,” Lach said. “I know it can feel like a retreat. But I can tell you, in all the conversations that I am, that’s not what it is.”

A July memo from the Department of Justice warns higher education institutions that receive federal funding and are subject to federal anti-discrimination laws, like GW, of “significant legal risks” if they engage in what the Trump administration defines as discriminatory practices, like DEI programs. University President Ellen Granberg in an email last month reflecting on challenges facing GW said officials are working with the Office of the General Counsel and outside counsel to “clearly understand” applicable laws, like civil rights and anti-discrimination laws, to ensure the University meets the standards.

Granberg said legal assessments will be shared with senior administrators to evaluate and offer officials advice on maintaining GW’s commitment to “full inclusion and equal opportunity” within the law.

Greenstein then asked Lach how he would respond to community members who intend to continue their DEI work at the University, despite federal directives calling DEI initiatives illegal.

Lach said GW could start to get into trouble if programs are exclusive to certain members of the community based on “protected characteristics,” though he is not aware of any activities at the University that could be framed as problematic from a legal perspective. He said it’s “crazy” for anyone to call the work people are doing at GW to support the community and help people thrive illegal.

He said the University’s resources are available to all students and programs might only be illegal if they’re designed to help one segment of the community thrive as opposed to all members.

“There are places where we’ve had to kind of change some wording a little bit just to clarify that and emphasize that point,” Lach said.

Lach said he wants to make sure campus resources and services are “inclusive” rather than exclusive and available to all students. He said he hasn’t seen any exclusive resources, but West wants to emphasize to the community that the Multicultural Student Services Center offers resources for everybody. 

“It has a bit of a perception that it’s maybe only for a subset of our community, but it’s not,” Lach said. 

MSSC Director Vanice Antrum said earlier this month that the center, at its core, is for all GW students and does not serve only a particular population. She said she’s looking at other institutions and professional development resources to learn what the center “needs to be doing” to support students from all backgrounds, in light of Trump’s targeting of DEI at universities across the country.

Katherine Puskarz, a member of the Faculty Senate Standing Committee on Libraries, said during her committee update that library officials are looking to cancel academic journal subscriptions with low usage as part of their budget cuts, rather than cutting library staff. 

“For comparison, the journals that we get through Elsevier, what we pay annually is what the cost of a seven-acre private island in Belize costs,” Puskarz said. “So it’s stupid expensive.”

The Staff Council amended its bylaws to add a new president-appointed staff representative relations officer role. The new position — which will serve on the executive board — will work with Staff Council representatives to ensure they have the tools and resources to support their constituents, along with coordinating with committee chairs to encourage representative participation in committees. 

“The purpose of wanting to propose this is to just provide some extra support and guidance for representatives, which is something they’ve been asking for since we started the council,” Staff Council Vice President Mindy Galván, who proposed the amendment, said.