This decision to close its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion offices and discontinue the DEI 2.0 Strategic Plan should concern not just University of Michigan students, faculty, and alumni, but anyone who values higher education, diversity, and academic freedom. Here’s why:  1. It Sets a Dangerous Precedent – If a leading public university like Michigan backs down under federal pressure, other institutions may follow, leading to a nationwide rollback of DEI initiatives. This weakens higher education's ability to support historically marginalized groups. 2. It Empowers Authoritarian Tactics – By complying with political intimidation, Michigan signals that academic institutions can be bullied into abandoning their core values. This emboldens those who want to dismantle equity efforts, making it easier for future attacks on universities, faculty, and students. 3. It Hurts Students and Faculty – DEI programs provide crucial resources, mentorship, and protections for underrepresented students and faculty. Removing them makes campuses less inclusive and more hostile for many communities. 4. It Undermines Academic Freedom – Universities should be spaces for critical thought, debate, and progress. Allowing government overreach to dictate educational policy threatens the independence of institutions dedicated to truth and scholarship. 5. It Echoes Historical Patterns of Suppression – Historically, authoritarian regimes have targeted universities first, recognizing their role in shaping society and challenging oppressive ideologies. This decision mirrors past moments where institutions either resisted or enabled such takeovers. People should be paying attention because what happens at Michigan could happen elsewhere—and the consequences extend far beyond one campus.

The removal of these protections isn’t just a major setback for the civil rights enshrined into law by Lyndon B. Johnson—it’s also a fundamental attack on our democracy. While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 still prohibits segregation, this rollback signals the government’s disinterest in ensuring that workplaces are free from discrimination. This escalation could lead to the erosion of workplace standards nationwide and could embolden employers to ignore laws intended to protect workers from discrimination.  We can’t backslide on segregation. Add your voice to demand that the Trump administration reverse this dangerous decision and protect the rights of all workers, regardless of race. 

This is an important cause because every person deserves a chance to go to college if they want to. Going to college allows people to get a higher education which can be very helpful to develop critical thinking skills, a deeper understanding of the world, and just overall being more informed. It also allows for better job opportunities, better earning potentials, and greater career success. Almost half of college students have to get jobs while in college which can add stress to these students because they have to juggle school and work. Over half of college students have to take out student loans and end up having debt after they graduate because they can't afford college on their own. With rising costs many people won't be able to afford a higher education if they want to but expanding Federal Pell Grants to account for inflation can help more students be able to afford college. This can potentially allow students to take out less student loans and students might not have to get jobs during college for them to afford to attend. It can potentially help students be less stressed and less worried about where they are going to find the money to afford college. Overall, expanding Federal Pell Grants to account for inflation can allow lower income students to attend college and get a higher education.

The right to access abortion is under attack—and without the Trump administration’s commitment to protecting access to medication abortion, state governments must step in.  By stockpiling mifepristone, states can help ensure that if access is threatened, patients can continue to access this safe and effective medication, which accounts for the majority of all abortions in the United States. This is a practical and necessary step to protect abortion—and we need other states to follow suit, now. Sign the petition urging all governors to start stockpiling mifepristone. 

It's not only dangerous to the American public that this happened, but the fact that a reporter was inadvertently given access to these current plans in real time shows that Pete Hegseth and the rest of this crew are astoundingly incompetent at the roles they've been chosen for.  Pete Hegseth was just a Fox News host, with nowhere near the same sort of tactical experience that past defense secretaries had when Trump nominated him for his Cabinet. The risk of having Hegseth and other officials leak information like this raises concerns about the potential mishandling of classified information and sensitive details regarding U.S. war plans in the future.  When President Donald Trump was asked about the report on Monday afternoon, he said, “I don’t know anything about it,” then added, “I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic.” If Trump won't take actual matters of national security seriously, we will. Sign the petition if you agree there must be a congressional hearing or investigation to hold Hegseth and officials in Trump's administration accountable.  Image Source: Andrew Harnik / Getty

Without your support the forgotten women in beers beautiful and diverse history will remain forgotten. 

The US has always been a symbol of democracy, freedom and justice. Allowing Putin to conquer any part of Ukraine creates  significant destabilizing impact on global security. The ultimate US costs of Putin’s victory would be much higher than the cost of supporting Ukraine’s self-defense. Ukraine’s victory would help the US regain Europe’s trust and respect and remain one of the US most trusted trading partners. Support for Ukraine will send a message to the world that the US is still holding the values it is a symbol of and a message to the tyrants that the evil and injustice will not prevail.

Public broadcasting provides Americans with access to local news, educational programming, and independent journalism without corporate and political influence. Public broadcasters like PBS and NPR are beloved and crucial to communities across the nation, but Republicans are attacking these institutions with the goal of defunding public broadcasting.  We can fight back by letting MAGA know that public broadcasting is for the people and can’t be defunded or bought by billionaires! 

Donald Trump’s current attempt to gut bedrock environmental law may take away your ability to have a voice in decisions made by federal agencies. The National Environmental Policy Act has been implemented by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) since 1977. His Executive Order, Unleashing American Energy, strips the CEQ of its authority, putting implementation in the hands of each federal agency. He directed CEQ to provide guidance to the agencies that tells them they should not consider a proposed project’s cumulative environmental impacts or matters of environmental justice. The agencies can also make the call on whether a project undergoes an environmental review and how detailed that review will be. It is the environmental review process that provides the public a formal opportunity to comment.  CEQ is managing the process of its own dismantling and has opened its Interim Final Rule to the public for comment until March 27. Please sign our petition and, if you can, take the additional step of submitting a comment. The government counts petitions as one comment, so we're asking people to submit comments to help us show the broad support for protecting our bedrock environmental law. We’ve created an EZ form to make it simple for you to comment. Write opening and closing sentences and select points to add to your comment from the list we provide. We’ll format your comment as a PDF and submit it to Regs.gov. We’ll also keep a copy of your comment and its tracking number. We do NOT use your information to add you to our mailing list. If you prefer, you can submit your comment directly to Regs.gov. Please share a copy of the comment and tracking number with us or keep them on file. Background The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), signed into law by Richard Nixon in 1970, is often referred to as the “Magna Carta” of environmental law. In 1977, Jimmy Carter issued an executive order directing the executive branch’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to develop regulations for its implementation.  President Trump’s Day 1 executive order, Unleashing American Energy, eviscerates NEPA by stripping CEQ of its authority and by further ordering the Council to propose rescinding all of the regulations it developed and providing guidance to federal agencies on how they can implement NEPA themselves. The executive order continues regulations implemented “must expedite permitting approvals and meet deadlines established in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (Public Law 118-5)” and  “must prioritize efficiency and certainty over any other objectives, including those of activist groups, that do not align with the policy goals set forth in section 2 of this order or that could otherwise add delays and ambiguity to the permitting process.” (The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 chipped away at NEPA in amendments to the unrelated bill, like setting arbitrary page limits on environmental reviews.)  Trump cannot repeal NEPA without Congress, so he’s doing the next best thing (in his view). He’s removing its teeth.

Trump is working every angle to squash dissent against his extreme agenda–whether it be student protestors, independent reporters, judges, or political opponents. His aim is to instill fear against all opposition and punish those who take action against him to make a lesson to the rest of us.  And Republicans in Congress are providing an avenue to actually make it happen. Congressman Brandon Gill of Texas introduced Articles of Impeachment against Judge Boasberg, calling for him to be removed from office after he temporarily blocked Trump's ability to use 1798 Wartime Act. A number of other Republicans have since voiced their support for impeachment. And Elon Musk—the unelected billionaire who is pursuing an agenda of chaos and destruction with our federal programs and workers—has also been calling for the removal of judges who would stand in his way. Trump and Musk know that judges are a critical check on their power, and their solution is to either remove them or bully them into submission.  Trump is willing to go to any lengths to ram through his billionaire agenda of hollowing out the government so his billionaire buddies can accumulate unprecedented wealth. All the while, cutting Social Security, public schools, Medicaid, regulations that keep our air and water clean, research to find cures for deadly diseases and cancer, and so much more. Sign the petition to tell Congress to reject and push back against Trump's attempts to intimidate the judiciary and commit to blocking partisan, power-grab efforts to impeach a judge for ruling against Trump.

People should join this campaign because a nation is smart and thoughtful when its people are enlightened through a good world-class education.

During World War II, Jackie Robinson was court martialed, and later acquitted, for refusing to sit in the back of a segregated Army bus. He was a trailblazer for civil rights in the military, and eventually on the baseball field as the first Black man to play in Major League Baseball. By deleting the webpage honoring him, the Department of Defense is sending a clear signal that it’s not interested in protecting strides made in the Civil Rights Movement or honoring the sacrifices of its military service members who come from diverse backgrounds.  Just recently, the federal government said it would no longer prohibit federal contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms, and drinking fountains—a dangerous escalation that could lead to unchecked discrimination.  Removing these webpages is an affront to all soldiers and veterans of color who have sacrificed for our country. And as civil rights lawyer Ben Crump said, "This isn't history being forgotten; it's history being erased!" Add your name to tell the federal government we won’t let them erase history—restore Jackie Robinson's webpage now.