The Independent

Stassun told The Independent that as recently as January, the Frist Center was told it would receive a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to create a model for including neurodivergent people across engineering schools in the United States. The grant was supposed to be part of the Broadening Participation in Engineering program, which focuses on including a diverse array of people in engineering. But because the grant was not officially activated before Trump put in place an executive order limiting DEI programs and before Elon Musk began the process of eliminating various programs as part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the grant was suspended. Stassun said he understood the suspension came as a result of the program having “bad DEIA” words such as “neurodiversity,” “inclusion,” “disabilities,” and “accessibility.”