Executive Order
#14283 — HBCU Excellence & Innovation (April 23, 2025)
Highlights
Establishing the “White House Initiative to Promote Excellence and Innovation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).” Cancels HBCU collaboration with the EPA but allows HBCU collaboration with the USDA to continue. Encourages more private partnerships.
Key Compliance/Risk Cue
Possible “Trojan horse” oversight.
Litigation Snapshot
Quiet—for now. There’s no litigation as yet. But it bears watching. The EO discontinued HBCU's collaboration with the EPA, but allowed the USDA-HBCU collaboration to continue. The strong support in the EO for HBCUs seems at odds with the Trump Administration's dislike for what it deems to be "DEI" and any critical race theory teaching. Indeed CRT is banned by EO# 13950 (Sept. 22, 2020 – Trump 1.0) in federal workplace training and schools K-12. EO# 14283 seems misaligned with statements coming out of the White House and therefore bears watching.