'On the line' | Elite business schools scale back DEI under Trump pressure

Some of the nation’s most selective business schools are retreating from longstanding diversity partnerships in response to federal pressure, ending decades of cooperation with organizations designed to recruit underrepresented students.

The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, founded in 1966 to increase access for minority candidates, has been hit particularly hard. After reaching a record of 25 participating schools in the 2025 admissions cycle, several have since withdrawn. The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business cited “regulatory compliance requirements” for its exit, while the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business paused its involvement due to “heightened scrutiny.”