Amid federal departmental cuts, wide-sweeping executive orders, and an elimination of most DEI programming and initiatives at universities across the nation, UWYO has found itself in the crosshairs of the Trump administration for the purported violation of Title IX enacted during the highly controversial case of Kappa Kappa Gamma in their allowance of a transgender woman to join their sorority. This case flooded Wyoming news, changing the lives of those involved forever: but it now seems that the effects have caught the attention of the presidential administration.
These effects have been seen alongside the impacts on international students that Trump’s initiatives have created. One international student who recently graduated with a master’s degree in chemical engineering stated, “I wanted to pursue a doctorate program at the university, but funding for my research is not available, and there is nowhere I can go. I am looking for a job in my field but I do not know if I will find one right now because of everything that is happening.” This is the sentiment of many international students who have felt the targets placed on their backs during this politically tumultuous time. Now, with the recent Title IX non-compliance accusation of the Trump administration against UW, federal funding could be on the line. After years of potential program cuts and reshifting of funds, UWYO can’t afford the risk of losing more federal money and thus may be making strong reforms based on what the federal investigation determines.
The Department of Education released the statement that “OCR [Office of Civil Rights] launched an investigation into the University of Wyoming after the university allowed a man to join a campus sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG). Members of the KKG sorority chapter sued the sorority itself for allowing a male into the group and permitting him to access living areas of the sorority house that are restricted to women. A school receiving federal funding that supports, sponsors, or promotes a sorority or fraternity, must meet its obligations under Title IX to protect its students from sex-based harassment and sexual assault, regardless of the sorority or fraternity’s policy. A sorority that admits male students is no longer a sorority by definition and thus loses the Title IX statutory exemption for a sorority’s single-sex membership practices.” If this is decided to be accurate and falls under the DoE’s jurisdiction, the university may start exercising overt authority over the membership and abilities of Greek life on campus as a whole, removing autonomy and further diminishing any potential DEI-related initiatives or policies anywhere on campus. With cultural organizations falling alongside LGBT-inclusive ones such as DEI policies, international student policies, and the systematic and formal removal of most student communities and programs that involve the concepts of inclusion or diversity, many students are considering leaving the university. It is unclear what the future will look like for UW, but the effects of this investigation and the presidential executive orders are already affecting students all across campus and the Laramie community.
