The following letter, along with all the signatures, will be sent to University of Maine President Joan Ferrini-Mindy on November 1, 2025

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.

       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.