Recent Federal Developments

Dear Seattle University Community,

As a Jesuit Catholic university, Seattle University’s mission calls us to provide the highest quality education to everyone, particularly those who have historically been, and continue to be, excluded from educational opportunity. This in turn requires us to create and sustain an academic community characterized by radical hospitality, in which people of all identities, backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints can flourish and feel welcome. Seattle University also fully adheres to our non-discrimination policy and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin, and we fully comply with federal, state, and local antidiscrimination laws and regulations. We are committed to respecting the human dignity shared by every member of our community. These core values guide us in everything we do.

Recent Federal Developments and Implications

As many of you are no doubt aware from press accounts and other sources, on Friday evening, the Department of Education issued a “Dear Colleague” letter outlining the approach that the Trump administration plans to take in carrying out its obligation to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin by institutions of higher education that receive federal funding. Title VI is the statute that the Supreme Court relied on in the 2023 case of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (“SFFA”) to prohibit private universities that receive federal funding from considering the race of applicants as a factor in making their admissions decisions. Seattle University has fully complied with that decision and with subsequent guidance issued by the Biden administration regarding its meaning.

The Trump administration’s “Dear Colleague” letter, however, indicates an intention to interpret the SFFA decision far more broadly and aggressively than the Biden administration did. While the SFFA case focused narrowly on the use of race in admissions, the new administration has stated its interpretation of SFFA as prohibiting universities from “using race” in “hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic and campus life.”

Our Response and Next Steps

It is important to note that the “Dear Colleague” letter has no independent legal force and many legal experts view it as overreaching. It merely communicates the Trump administration’s intention to use the legal tools at its disposal to enforce its preferred expansive interpretation of the SFFA decision. Those tools include new guidance and regulations, which will govern any enforcement actions brought by the Office of Civil Rights. 

For now, Seattle University does not plan to make any immediate operational changes in response to Friday’s letter and will await new regulations or formal administrative guidance. When those come, we will study them carefully and either comply in a manner consistent with our Jesuit Catholic values (as we did in response to the SFFA decision) or – if that proves impossible – consider other legal avenues.

Staying True to Our Values and Principles

As with other actions taken by the new administration over the past month, Friday’s “Dear Colleague” letter is alarming in what it seems to threaten. When faced with a bully, some people are tempted to quietly submit while others feel compelled to punch back. But it is important to remember that we always retain the power to control how we respond, both emotionally and practically, to provocation. In moments of uncertainty and fear, it becomes even more important to hew closely to first principles and deeply held values.

The First Principle and Foundation of St. Ignatius’s spiritual exercises directs us to embrace a stance of interior openness among the various practically possible, morally permissible, and actually available means of achieving our goals. As Ignatius wrote: “it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things as much as we are able . . . so that we ultimately desire and choose only what is most conducive for us to the end for which God created us.” When St. Ignatius talks about “indiffer[ence],” he doesn’t mean a lack of care or concern, but rather an interior freedom to avoid knee-jerk responses and to chart the best all-things-considered path forward under the circumstances. This is the essence of the Jesuit approach to life, a veritable recipe for the flexible, pragmatic, and non-ideological wisdom for which the Jesuits have been known for over five centuries.

Drawing on this tradition, as we face the challenges that lie ahead, Seattle University will not compromise our principles (“the end for which God created us”). We remain committed to providing economic opportunity for those who have historically been, and continue to be, excluded from higher education and to our values of radical hospitality. We will continue to provide a campus learning environment that reflects the diversity of our society and planet and that supports and welcomes everyone, particularly the most vulnerable. These values are non-negotiable. They reflect who we are at our very core.

We will respond to the changing legal landscape at what we deem to be the appropriate times and in ways that reflect our values. In some areas, this may require finding new practices for achieving unchanging goals consistently with the law. In some cases, it may require us to pursue other legal options. But in all cases, following the model provided to us by the Jesuits, we will face our challenges with courage and conviction as well as intelligence and creativity.

As we continue our critically important mission through uncertain times, I want to remind you that we are a community of care, rooted in our Jesuit values. I encourage you to reach out to one another, to your mentors, to your professors, and to your colleagues. We are here to accompany one another, as our mission calls us to do.

Respectfully,

Eduardo M. Peñalver
President