The University of Maryland, College Park, has replaced diversity, equity and inclusion language with “belonging and community” in its bylaws, reflecting a broader shift amid pressure from the Trump administration.
The University Senate voted 108-22 this month to replace all DEI terms with the new phrase.
An additional 15 members of the body, which represents faculty, staff, students and administrators, abstained.
The decision also renamed the Senate’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee as the Belonging and Community Committee. This builds on an August 2025 decision to rebrand the university’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion and its vice president with similar language.
Material from the vote states that a Senate committee recommended the changes after a yearlong legal consultation and review of other Big Ten schools.
The document cites the “federal landscape and targets on higher education,” “changing terminology in the field,” a campus survey that endorsed the new terminology and a desire to “move away from isolating or othering terms and toward true inclusion.”
“Services on campus have not changed, and equity as a support term still exists (LGBTQ+ Equity Center for example),” the material states.
It remains unclear how the changes will affect the state’s flagship school and if other campuses in the system will follow suit.
Several faculty members, regents and University System of Maryland officials declined to comment or referred questions to the College Park campus.
A University of Maryland spokeswoman referred The Washington Times to Page 117 in the material from the Sept. 10 meeting.
“Overall, the committee felt this was not a decision being forced or recommended by any external stakeholder — but rather an organic decision that was supported by progress in the field of diversity and belonging, by the Belonging & Community at UMD and [Ethics, Diversity and Inclusion] Committees as well as campus representatives,” the material states.
The Student Government Association is dormant, awaiting new elections after both tickets were disqualified for ethical violations in the spring.
Louis Mancuso, a senior accounting major who served as the student government’s chief of staff earlier this year, noted that the University of Michigan dissolved its central DEI office and redistributed its resources in March 2025.
“Compared with that, Maryland’s approach seems much less disruptive,” Mr. Mancuso said in an email. “That being said, a new name is only meaningful if students continue to receive the resources and support they need.”
It is unknown whether the university will use the new language to comply with Trump administration policies forbidding race-based programs at public institutions. The White House did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Peter Wood, president of the conservative National Association of Scholars, said the “belonging and community” language feeds a growing national trend of universities diverting criticism of racial preferences by “renaming some offices and campus practices.”
“Did they think that federal officials attempting to enforce anti-DEI policies, though not fooled, would be satisfied with an entirely superficial change? If so, we will have to see what federal officials do next,” said Mr. Wood, a former associate provost at Boston University.
Peter Morici, a University of Maryland economics professor emeritus and columnist at The Times, said most universities are likely waiting out the Trump administration without any long-term intention of changing their practices.
“The real question is how faithfully they execute those changes in hiring and admissions,” Mr. Morici said. “I don’t think they will, because it’s too culturally embedded. They’re basically doing the Kabuki dance until Trump is gone.”
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