More than 40 research grants and contracts at the University of Maryland, College Park have been canceled due to cuts by the Trump administration, according to The Diamondback, the independent student newspaper associated with the university.

The grants and contracts total about $12 million.

UMD's president, Darryll Pines, said that the Trump administration was "using a filter of DEI as a lens to cancel, pause or delay the funding of a proposed research topic for one of our faculty or a group of our faculty."

According to Pines, the grants and contracts canceled or paused at UMD include funding from the National Institute of Health, the Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense.

UMD is not the only Maryland university that has lost funding due to recent federal cuts.

In March, the Trump administration said it was investigating 45 universities , including Towson University, for alleged racial discrimination over the schools' ties to The PhD Project, a non-profit that helps minority students get degrees in doctoral programs.

Also last month, Johns Hopkins University said it was laying off more than 2000 employees after it lost funding from USAID. Some employees were in Baltimore, but others worked across 44 countries to support JHU's Bloomberg School of Public Health, its medical school, and its affiliated non-profit.

Trump administration continues anti-DEI crackdown

President Trump's executive order on Jan. 21 titled "Ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity" ended DEI programs within the federal government.

In February, the Trump administration ordered U.S. colleges and universities to end diversity programs or have their federal funding pulled.

DEI, which stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion, was a term adopted to describe practices aimed at increasing diversity across professional spaces.

Age-old policies like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , professional groups based on shared identities, and the now revoked Equal Employment Opportunity rule that was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 have all been considered DEI initiatives.

Since existing laws do not provide a strict definition of what a DEI program is, the federal government has discretion over determining which programs it believes fall under the DEI umbrella.

What is the debate surrounding DEI?

Opponents of DEI have argued that it undermines merit-based opportunities , while DEI proponents say it prevents discrimination and creates fair and healthy environments within professional spaces.

While Mr. Trump's executive power allows the administration to cancel DEI programs at the federal level, individual states, institutions, and organizations still have autonomy over their respective policies and programs.

Those establishments, however, like Towson, and the University of Maryland, can still face scrutiny if they rely on federal funding.

In February, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown joined 16 state attorneys general in issuing guidance on how employers should approach DEI programs in the workplace.

Christian Olaniran is a digital producer for CBS Baltimore, where he writes stories on diverse topics including politics, arts and culture. With a passion for storytelling and content creation, he produces engaging visual content for social media, and other platforms.