Rice University is on a list of institutions that might be targeted for civil rights investigations stemming from a federal ban on diversity, equity and inclusion.
The most prominent U.S. higher education institutions are explicitly mentioned in one of President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders, instructing federal agencies to identify up to nine organizations for civil rights compliance investigations, among them higher education institutions with endowments of over $1 billion. Rice University’s endowment was valued at $8.1 billion at the end of 2024.
While the exact nature of possible investigations remains unclear, some scholars and advocates say that the threat against elite private universities dovetails with executive orders that have created chaos for federal funding – part of a broader attack on higher education that could potentially upend research and operations on U.S. college campuses…