Since he helped start IU’s LGBTQ+ Culture Center more than 30 years ago, Doug Bauder has seen a world of change. At that time, there were states where same-sex sexual activity was illegal. Now, Americans can marry who they want regardless of gender.
But some gay and transgender students are still cut off financially when they come out to their families. IU was one of the first institutions to offer scholarships specifically to LGBTQ students in 2005.
“That was considerable during the years I was in the directorship,” Bauder said. “It may not be as much now, I don't know, but a number of scholarships were given, and I know of some situations that were heartbreaking.”
In June, the IU Foundation, which manages donations to the university, began telling donors they needed to alter language in their gift agreements pertaining to marginalized groups. For example, scholarships for gay students. The Foundation told them new federal guidance required changes.
Until then, their scholarships were frozen.
“Initially I was very annoyed that this very difficult, creative and helpful program was being… I felt it was being squashed,” Bauder said.
The Foundation was referring to a “Dear Colleague” letter from the Trump Administration’s U.S. Department of Education in which Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor characterized race-based scholarships as “illegal and morally reprehensible.” LGBTQ scholarships aren’t mentioned in the letter, but the administration has taken aim at sex- and gender-based programs.
No law or court decision compels universities to end these scholarships paid for by donors. However, other universities are battling lawsuits over race-based scholarships or electing to end them on their own.
Gradually, the IU Foundation began working with donors to find language that better accommodated their gift agreements while still removing explicit preference. But for around two months, many donors said they felt dismissed and out of the loop.
To Cindy Stone, a former IU trustee, Kelley School lecturer and member of the Queer Philanthropy Circle, the university is close to her heart. She set up a scholarship for lesbian students in honor of her late partner.
“I had someone in my family decide to make a gift about a month or so ago, and it was taken down from the foundation's website,” Stone said. “No explanation. I wasn't told.”
Stone called a friend at the foundation to find out what was going on.
While the Trump administration has made good on threats against universities such as Columbia and Harvard, many donors bristled at the order from IU, which they saw as preemptive compliance.
“We're trying to kiss the ring of politicians in hopes that they won't harm the university,” Stone said. “And what, $60 million of our state budget was cut for the next year, and $40 million of our federal budget has already been cut. So whatever we’re doing, it’s not working anyway.”
Foundation board members and alumni donors told WFIU-WTIU News that interactions were tense between donors to affinity scholarships and the foundation and university administrations.
Beside LGBTQ scholarships, scholarships have been frozen for Black, Latino and Asian students.
Daisy Rodriguez Pitel, immediate past president of the Asian Alumni Association, said she was told during a meeting with the IU Foundation that race and ethnicity-based scholarships would no longer be allowed.
“For me, that was very distressing,” she said. “Twenty-three years later, I feel like a lot of the work that has gone on at the Asian Culture Center and supporting Asian Pacific Islander students is now dismissed.”
Rodriguez Pitel has Filipina heritage and said it’s important for her to support Asian and Pacific Islander students, which is around 10% of the Bloomington student body.
“I want to see what continues to unfold at IU and then I'll determine whether or not I'll continue participating,” she said. “But it looks pretty bleak.”
Other leaders in alumni minority networks share her deep frustration but disagree on the foundation’s complicity.
Alice Jordan, president of the Latino Alumni Association, is angry, but not at IU or the foundation. She said minorities have always had to deal with less, and she’ll keep telling IU where she wants her gifts to go in the memo section of her checks.
“As someone who gives and also who has received, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do,” Jordan said. “We’ve got to suck it up for the next four years — hopefully only four years — and abide by these new rules and policies and laws when they become law. Because I don't doubt that it will.”
Jordan is the eighth of 14 children and first in her family to go to college. Without scholarships for minority students, she doesn’t think she would have made it.
“Society and my culture told me without going to college, I was supposed to be barefoot and pregnant and 10 feet behind my man by the time I was 21,” Jordan said. “Minorities aren't into handouts. We're into the handups so that we can help the next person in line, so we can break that vicious cycle of poverty.”
After protests and talks within the foundation, some donors say they’ve managed to find language that preserves the intent of their gift. One member of the Black Philanthropy Circle said he has changed his gifts to include Black-majority zip codes in Indianapolis. At a meeting with LGBTQ alumni last month, foundation leaders proposed expanding scholarships to include allies.
Reactions overall have been mixed, but Bauder said his friends who were at the meeting see the new language as an improvement over the previous guidance.
“There's very little change in the language, and there was satisfaction on the part of GLBT alums who were there and alumni officials,” he said.
The IU Foundation declined WTIU’s request for an interview, but in an emailed statement, Philippa Guthrie, general counsel for the foundation before retiring in June, said, “Our overarching goal remains clear: to preserve access and affordability for all eligible students while honoring the intent of our generous supporters and remaining legally compliant.”
She added that “the IU Foundation is committed to transparency and collaboration throughout this review and remains steadfast in supporting student success.”
Stone recognizes that changes might be necessary to protect those scholarships in the long term, even if they make it harder to get money to their intended recipients.
“Part of me says fine, if this is what we need to do, if we need to play these kinds of games with politicians at the federal or state level then we say, ‘Oh, fine. On paper, they're open to all.’”
But ultimately, she’s ending her involvement with IU. Stone said it wasn’t because of the changes but the two months of confusion, bickering and unclear communication with the foundation. Some large scholarships reopened, but the thousands she gave in honor of her late partner are still frozen.
Stone said she and other LGBTQ donors are moving their scholarships off campus and thinking of creating a new nonprofit to manage them.
“If there's funds left at the time that I die, they're no longer going to the IU Foundation,” she said. “If they're freezing my scholarship that honors my late partner and has honored my work as well, there's no there's no reason that they should be getting that money when there's other things that I care about.”
Jordan said for now, she’ll keep sending gifts through the IU Foundation.
“Keep giving,” she said. “You’ve got to keep giving, because the need is definitely out there, and we can't let government restrictions impede our genuineness, our giving hearts, because we are a giving community.”
Webpages listing diversity scholarships for IU remain offline.
