Is this Wichita State or Trump University? | Opinion
Some years ago, when a old friend of mine from California was planning a tour of Midwestern universities with her soon-to-be college-going daughter, I told her that they could stay at our house if they wanted to check out Wichita State University.
She wrote me back saying thanks for the offer, but because her daughter is Latina, they were looking for a campus that would be more culturally liberal and supportive of minority students.
I pushed back on that, telling her that Wichita State was highly respected for the diversity of its student body and its commitment to inclusion of minority students in all aspects of campus life.
I can’t say that anymore.
Not after watching the university cancel scheduled graduation events — at the behest of President Donald Trump and his followers — that would have celebrated the achievements of minority and first-generation WSU students.
During the heyday of Wichita State basketball, the motto was “Play Angry.”
Today, I’m writing angry.
I’m angry at seeing the ugly spectacle of a university that I once respected folding like a Walmart card table in the face of thinly veiled racist mandates and threats from the Trump administration, as it campaigns to eradicate DEI across the nation.
DEI, as you probably know, stands for diversity, equity and inclusion. These are positive attributes that were the hallmark of any decent university, before Trump and company turned those three letters into a dog-whistle appeal to voters who had been more-or-less quietly nursing their prejudices all along.
Of course, one need not be a racist or bigot to make a case that some university DEI programs went too far in handling scholarships, admissions and hiring preferences. The proper balance between extra assistance and discrimination can be elusive.
But that wasn’t my family’s experience with WSU. My son Braden, about as white and male as they come, springboarded off his WSU education to a full scholarship at the University of Kansas School of Law and a highly successful career as a lawyer.
The university giving extra help to students from more diverse and economically challenging backgrounds than my son came from doesn’t seem to have diminished him in any way I can see.
The WSU Sunflower, a partner of ours in the Wichita Journalism Collaborative, reports that the three graduation events cut by the university administration are the Multicultural Graduation Celebration for minority students, Lavender Graduation for LGBTQ students, and the Cord Ceremony recognizing graduates who are the first in their families to complete a college education.
The canceled events were all separate gatherings from the main graduation ceremony.
They had nothing to do with who gets admitted, who gets a scholarship, or who gets hired. They were simply a way to say “job well done” to some students who had to overcome more adversity than others to get to the graduation stage.
According to a WSU demographic report, 48% of its students are first-generation graduates, and 40% are from minority backgrounds. Those are statistics to celebrate, not hide from.
But the university’s justification is as lame as its actions.
The administration said in a statement that it canceled the special ceremonies “in response to recent federal orders, agency guidance, and state legislation.” That’s the college equivalent of saying “We were just following orders.”
This isn’t the first time WSU has marched to the tune of Trump and his clan.
You might remember about five years ago, when the university invited Trump’s daughter (and noted governmental nepotism hire) Ivanka Trump to address the graduating class of its trade school, WSU Tech.
Amid a campus revolt involving hundreds of faculty and students, then-WSU President Jay Golden canceled the speech, having Ms. Trump participate by video instead.
That infuriated a relative handful of wealthy conservative donors, who contacted the state Board of Regents and threatened to pull their financial support if the board didn’t fire Golden.
He “resigned” three months later, after less than a year in the job.
Lesson learned. Money talks. Trump money talks loudest.
Trump is systematically yanking federal funding from any university that dares defy his dictates on who gets in and what they’re taught.
In the context of higher education, “Make America Great Again” is coded language for forcing universities to marginalize minorities and erase their contributions to society.
First-rate universities are resisting that.
Wichita State is rolling over for it.
This story was originally published May 9, 2025 at 4:30 AM.
