kare11.com

At the University of St. Thomas, 185 students recently found out their scholarships have been canceled by the federal government. The university’s president, Rob Vischer, said Friday night the school received an email from the U.S. Department of Education that explained how a grant program that awarded the university $6.8 million was being canceled. “Honestly, this was quite surprising to us,” President Vischer said. He told KARE 11 that the surprising aspect of this decision was that the grant program was recently flagged by the Trump administration as a DEI initiative (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) that goes against the administration’s goals. “Under the Biden administration, grant applicants were required to explain how use of the funds could advance diversity in the teaching profession, which we, of course, did,” Vischer said. “The core of the grant we don’t think is a priority that is changed. We still need more special ed and elementary teachers.”