Universities in the United States are removing their DEI policies in fear of the Trump administration withdrawing funding. However, there is broad popular support for maintaining these DEI policies, and withdrawing them will result in people deciding not to attend these universities. We recommend that universities explore alternative funding options to not be dependent on the Trump administration funding, and to maintain their DEI policies. We further recommend that once there is a sizable number of signatures to this petition, that students, faculty, staff, and alumni at a university send this petition and a letter to the president of their university, urging them to maintain their DEI policies. As an example, the following is a letter that will be sent to the president of the University of Maine at Orono in this regard: https://www.change.org/p/maintaining-dei-policies-at-university-of-maine-at-orono 

Dear President Ferrini-Mundy,
       As students, faculty, staff, and alumni of The University of Maine at Orono, and people who support universities maintaining their DEI policies, we urge you to do your utmost to preserve the DEI policies at the University of Maine at Orono. We understand the complications and dangers involved in doing so, and we also appreciate your efforts to continue these policies while changing DEI names to avoid negative consequences from the Trump administration. However, we are concerned that as pressures mount there may be more motivation to agree to changes in DEI policies in addition to name changes, and we are concerned that this would compromise the basic values that are at the foundations of this university. We appreciate the statements of Interim Dean of Students Andrea Gifford in her reassurance that the university’s DEI policies are not changing in spite of the name changes, and it is our hope that this continues. Along these lines we recommend that you explore alternative sources of funding to not be dependent on the Trump administration in regard to the university's DEI policies.
       Thank you very much for your continued efforts to preserve DEI policies at The University of Maine at Orono.

                                                  Elliot Benjamin, Ph.D, Ph.D.