The University of Kentucky is ending its relationship with The PhD Project nonprofit after legal pressure from the Department of Education.
The department announced last week that UK was among a group of universities nationwide under investigation because of ties to the nonprofit.
The PhD Project works with students from underrepresented backgrounds to help them get postgraduate business degrees.
The department is investigating whether the school’s graduate programs are allegedly engaging in “race-exclusionary practices” by partnering with the group.
That comes amid a push from both federal and state lawmakers to end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in schools. Kentucky lawmakers passed House Bill 4, which would end such initiatives in colleges, to the governor’s desk earlier this week.
A campus letter from university president Eli Capilouto says they’ll be fully cooperating with the department’s investigation.
The letter says UK’s relationship to the nonprofit comes from shared attendance at an annual networking conference, and that no doctoral students are involved in the program.
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