By Gabriel Elmosleh
News Editor

With recent executive orders and federal directives targeting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in higher education, colleges across the country are responding in different ways, with some schools trying to maintain their programs, while others gut them.

However, despite the new directives from Washington, the Leadership, Education, & Advocacy for Progress (LEAP) Office at Clackamas Community College, as well as college president Tim Cook, said the school can continue to meet its goals of being diverse, equitable and inclusive.

“Our job here at the college is to be an open, welcoming institution for anybody and everybody that comes in, whether you call it diversity, equity, inclusion, or whether you call it something else, it doesn’t really change what we do,” said Cook.

Tim Cook, President of the College. Photo by Jackson Arterberry

Cook said he isn’t sure if Washington’s new attitude towards DEI will impact the school and its mission to be equitable, innovative and responsive.

“In my mind, if there was a world, say next week, where by law, we couldn’t use DEI, I don’t know if that would change the work that we do,” said Cook. “That’s the strangest part about all of this. We would still be an open access, open door institution.”

The college hired its first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer, Casey Layton, in 2021. College administrators said Layton’s job would be to help dismantle barriers to student success, increase staff diversity and build a sense of belonging at CCC.

The college’s DEI office was recently renamed to the LEAP office, still led by Layton, whose title is now the head of the LEAP office and Chief Culture and Impact Officer. The name change has been under consideration since 2021, Layton said, when she first took the job, and was done to clear up confusion about the purpose of the office.

When she first started her job, it was a one person operation. Now, she and three other employees work in the office.

“It was just inside of me that we have got to take a different approach to this work because I think people misunderstand it, and therefore they resist that which is unknown to them,” said Layton.

Layton said that many people believe that the mission of the LEAP office is to only promote diversity. However, she suggests it has a different goal: appreciating differences. To appreciate the difference, the office has to ask itself critical questions regarding how the institution operates.

“What does diversity, equity, and inclusion mean?” said Layton. “What do those words mean and how do they impact your work, or what do those words mean to your work that you do here at the college or your specific task, whether it’s maintaining maintenance of buildings so folks have clean restrooms or air conditioning, all the way to our college relations and marketing.”

This critical self reflection also extends into accommodating the student body.

“We appreciate difference,” said Layton. “And so how do we get others to understand the benefits of having people be different or thoughts be different in a space? What are the ways we can do that?”

Layton gave an example of how she once helped a student pass their math classes at a previous school, by making sure their way of problem solving was accommodated for.

The LEAP office has stated before that their goal is not to push the college in a certain direction, but rather to support its mission.

“Our values as a college are learning, equity, student success, community and belonging, so you can see that our work is in alignment [with college values],” said Csea Leonard, the program manager for the LEAP office.

Christina Franciso-Evans, the program coordinator at the LEAP office, supported the statement. “We exist to support the mission, to bolster the mission, and not the other way around.”

Although the Trump Administration wants to make DEI federally illegal and punish schools that use it by taking away their funding, Cook said that faculty who work in DEI are protected, and will remain that way under Oregon state law.

On Feb 5, the US Attorney General’s office sent out a series of memos to Department of Justice offices across the country, with a series of widely differing directives. One of which, titled “Ending illegal DEI and DEIA discrimination and preferences”, outlines how the Department of Justice will make DEI practices illegal to any institution that receives federal funding.

The memo also directs the Department of Justice to begin working with the Department of Education to eliminate DEI programs at universities.

The LEAP office made it clear that they will always follow federal law, but the executive orders signed by Trump are not legally binding.

“Right now we’re continuing to do work as we can. If there’s something we can no longer do, we’re going to follow the federal law. We’re required to as a federal institution,” said Leonard. “It’s important to note that we have to follow federal law.”

The LEAP office isn’t quite sure how the recent federal directives from Washington will actually be put into place, and how they’ll affect the work that they do.

Employees of the LEAP office, from left, Csea Leonard, Jessi Alley-Snell, Casey Layton, and Christina Francisco-Evans. Photo provided by LEAP office.

“We’re uncertain of how the federal impacts will actually be implemented. We’re not sure how that future holds in the sense of like, what’s going to happen in the next three, five years,” said Layton.

For Cook, as well as the rest of the administrative staff at the college, the situation is above all else, confusing.

“I’ll tell you this, it’s taking up an inordinate amount of everybody’s time. That’s the biggest frustration for me,” said Cook. “We should be really focusing on the college and moving the college forward, but you know, I’m in a call every week with all the presidents in Oregon to try and figure out what’s going on.”