Vice President for DEI & Student Affairs Khalilah Marbury delivered opening remarks at a Feb. 3 DEI forum during Founder’s Celebration. Photo by Jonathan Wang.
LEAH OLLIE | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | lollie@butler.edu
In the wake of the first month of President Donald Trump’s second term, educational institutions have joined the ranks of various industry leaders organizing a rapid response to new executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), funding cuts and threats of deportation impacting campus community members. From public universities reevaluating their academic programs to private colleges moving to diversify grant funding for research, academia has responded to the present political moment by prioritizing institutional instincts for preservation of its legacy.
At Butler, a private campus founded upon Ovid Butler’s values of abolition, uncertainty remains in the campus community regarding the vast-reaching impacts of the Trump administration’s policies. As executive orders take effect alongside Indiana Senate bills introducing DEI crackdowns, lawmakers have brought the fight to protect diversity, equity and inclusion closer to home.
In January, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office became the first law enforcement agency in the state to announce a formal partnership with ICE agents to establish an immigration commission. Ivy Tech shared plans to close its Office of Diversity, Equity and Belonging in preemptive compliance with state funding cuts to DEI programs.
Prior to November’s presidential election, Vice President for DEI & Student Affairs Dr. Khalilah Marbury addressed the campus community encouraging civic engagement via email. In the month following President Trump’s inauguration, the university has not issued any public statement in response to state or federal legislation addressing DEI initiatives but rather pointed to its founding mission through Founder’s Celebration programming.
Marbury and Danny Kibble, senior executive director of DEI initiatives & engagement, could not be reached for comment prior to publication. Kibble referred to Marbury’s and President James Danko’s remarks at a Feb. 3 Founder’s Celebration event titled “DEI Forum and Awards Ceremony”.
Danko and Marbury referenced the opportunities afforded by immigration and the importance of diversity in their respective remarks and continued to affirm the continuity between Butler’s founding and its current commitment to diversity.
“I cannot ignore the stark contrast of the fear and division that pervades our current national discourse,” Danko said. “Not everyone sees the diversity of our country — the very tapestry that has defined and sustained us — as a strength. Instead, we are witnessing efforts to diminish, discredit, or even dismantle initiatives that support inclusivity.”
Marbury’s address focused on strategic initiatives that will implement student survey feedback from focus groups and annual results from the National College Health Assessment (NCHA). Marbury stated in her remarks that in the fall of 2024, NCHA results indicated the university’s student body increased in diversity to reflect 24% of students identifying as “racially, ethnically or internationally diverse”.
“We have and we will continue to respond to the needs of our Butler community,” Marbury said. “We know and acknowledge that many are impacted by the current fight against [DEI] … I see you and want you to know that we’re working.”
Senior journalism major Jade Eilers emceed the event and spoke to the importance of the forum as a platform for remarks from staff as well as student concerns.
“I felt that was a good thing to have [the event] be more [of a] structured [forum],” Eilers said. “If they were to give updates about everything happening in the world, they’d have to give a new update every day … These people that work in DEI, these are marginalized people [and] it’s impacting them in a different way every day. So yes, they are spokespeople, and it’s their job, but it’s also impacting them personally.”
Eilers was chosen to emcee the event because of her past experience in public speaking as well as DEI involvement. As a student of color on campus, she too is seeking answers for how life at Butler might shift under new federal or state legislation.
“[Marbury] was reaffirming that nothing at Butler is going to change, even though the world around us and the state that we’re in is changing,” Eilers said. “I thought that that was a good thing to hear from a student of color’s perspective.”
Senior biology major Zayd Almaya attended the forum with peers similarly involved in DEI work on campus through Diversity Program Council, but noted a lack of student attendance.
“I probably saw maximum five other students and maybe [approximately] 20 to 30 professors,” Almaya said. “When I first walked in, I realized how formal [the event] was; people were dressed up and very, very clearly a lot of thought and effort was put into it.”
Following the event’s duration, a recording of the complete remarks and awards ceremony was uploaded to Butler’s website for future access.
Almaya found the forum’s remarks to be grounding in the face of uncertainty, as a reflection of Butler’s continuing DEI work.
“There could have been some confusion, just with recent political change,” Almaya said. “But I think it’s been clear that [the university’s stance on DEI] has not changed at all, and that Dr. Marbury’s work has not been changed.”
Students concerned about how new legislation will impact their student experience can reach out to Danny Kibble for the Division of DEI’s curated list of internal and external resources.
