School has always been a safe space for me. Growing up as a Black girl in Detroit and attending school in the metro area, I was privileged to be taught in diverse classrooms with devoted staff who truly changed my life and inspired me to dream big.

My early educational experiences instilled in me a love of learning and a passion for student leadership. After graduating high school, I decided to pursue a postsecondary education at an HBCU, where I continued to grow as a scholar and community-builder. My journey led me to enroll in a graduate program focused on public administration that spoke to my undergraduate studies and passion for education policy.

Attending graduate school was the first time I attended a predominantly white institution (PWI). I instantly felt like I wasn’t fitting into my program, and I started to lose my passion for subjects I once loved. I struggled to connect professionally with my instructors and socially with my classmates. For the first time, my safe space was gone, and I began to question if graduate school was the right place for me.

Removing “Black” from our constitution isn’t going to stop us from being an affinity group focused on Black student success, but it sends a message to underrepresented students that their identities and sense of belonging on campus do not matter.

Things changed my second semester, when I joined the executive board for the Graduate Black Student Union on my campus. This organization supported me through some of my most difficult times as a student and helped reaffirm I belonged in my program. When I experienced a microaggression from one of my professors, the members of this organization offered me a shoulder to lean on and a listening ear during an already difficult time. My experience with the organization was so impactful that at the end of the semester, a friend and I decided to run as co-presidents the following year.

I would love to see the Graduate Black Student Union flourish for years to come and continue to support students in the same way it supported me. However, as anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies threaten the operations of affinity groups on college campuses, I worry about the future of my organization and others like it across the country.

Like many other DEI programs on college campuses, affinity groups have been under attack, despite their positive contributions to student engagement and to campus racial climate. These attacks have intensified in recent years following the Trump administration’s efforts to completely eliminate DEI in higher education. For more than a year and a half, over 300 colleges and universities have eliminated DEI requirements, closed DEI offices, and removed diversity statements from hiring practices. Most recently, the administration has proposed removing the tax-exempt status of private colleges and universities in an effort to further erode DEI-related programs, including pushing to ban affinity groups and targeted mentorship programs. These changes have contributed to an increasingly unwelcome and hostile campus environment and infringe upon the civil rights of underrepresented students on college campuses.

In my short time leading an affinity group, I have already begun to experience the complexities of navigating anti-DEI policies on a university campus and how these polices impact organizations which foster student belonging. My fellow affinity group leaders and I must navigate challenges that were once unimaginable. We now have to carefully frame and market events to comply with changing DEI policies, knowing that a misstep could lead to our institutions being sued. We struggle to find support after university DEI offices have been closed, restructured, or renamed, and, at times, feel pressured to distance ourselves from our organizations’ core mission in order to secure university funding.

Most recently, we were asked to remove all instances of the word “Black” from our Black Student Union’s constitution, in order to comply with the university’s “anti-discrimination” policies. I struggled to understand how excluding the community we serve, and erasing a critical part of our organization’s identity, would make the organization more “inclusive for all.” It left me wondering whether the true priority was inclusivity or compliance to avoid the scrutiny of the current administration.

Removing “Black” from our constitution isn’t going to stop us from being an affinity group focused on Black student success, but it sends a message to underrepresented students that their identities and sense of belonging on campus do not matter. It demonstrates that universities and student organizations are forced to make decisions which harm their students out of fear of losing resources, funding, and the favor of the federal government.

Despite these challenges, I, and other student leaders, remain committed to this work. Affinity groups on college campuses are the result of decades of student organizing and advocacy. They serve a vital role in higher education and are open to all individuals to participate and support their fellow students. DEI programs at colleges have helped underrepresented students create networks, eliminate barriers, and have kept these students engaged in school. Newly created policies that are not designed to create equity will not be able to erase the impact that these organizations and programs have made, or the continued need for diverse spaces on college and university campuses.

We must ensure affinity groups remain active and funded on college campuses so that underrepresented students continue to have the opportunity to fellowship and to develop a sense of belonging at their institution. Rather than abandoning these organizations, now is the time to highlight their contributions, invest in them, and reaffirm their role in making higher education a place for everyone.

Colleges can support affinity groups by preserving DEI offices which help to sustain their work and by ensuring these organizations have access to funding, institutional resources, and dedicated spaces on campus. Colleges should also allow these groups to remain true to their missions and the communities they serve, while actively highlighting their contributions to campus life. Supporting affinity groups will help prevent and address discrimination on campus and reaffirm their institutions’ commitment to fostering a truly inclusive campus environment.

I found my place in graduate school because an affinity group put community first, and I hope U.S. colleges and universities have the courage to do the same, even as pressure to prioritize compliance over community grows. The Graduate Black Student Union helped me rediscover my place in higher education, and every student deserves the same opportunity to find community when they need it most.

Robyn Jennings was a 2026 summer government affairs intern at EdTrust

Photo by Allison Shelley/Complete College Photo Library