Arizona State University is one of over 50 universities nationwide being investigated for alleged racial discrimination in its admissions process, supporting President Donald Trump’s efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs. 

The Associated Press reported that the Department of Education announced new investigations on Friday, March 14 — a month after issuing the memo that warned schools that they could lose federal funding for race-based preferences. 

These new investigations are largely focused on schools working with the nonprofit PhD Project, which helps underrepresented students get degrees in business to support the diversification of the business world.

Officials from the department have said that the program “limits eligibility based on race and that colleges that partner with it are ‘engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs.’”

ASU is one of the 45 colleges that are facing investigations for their ties to the PhD Project. Other schools being looked into include Ohio State University, Rutgers University, Yale University and more.

An ASU spokesperson provided an emailed statement saying that on Feb. 20, the W. P. Carey School of Business informed relevant faculty members that the school would not support their travel to the upcoming PhD Project Conference. 

“The school also this year is not financially supporting the PhD Project organization,” the spokesperson said. 

Currently, there is no other additional information regarding the university's ties to the nonprofit.

Cronkite News also recently reported that Arizona universities are at risk of losing 720 federal grants, equivalent to $812 million, because of Trump’s campaign to eliminate DEI programming. 

It was reported that ASU staff was instructed to remove all DEI content from a grant application in order to continue receiving funding for their work, and Arizona universities have been “quietly” changing DEI language to comply with Trump’s orders.