Illinois universities are quietly withdrawing from a fellowship aimed at diversifying the state’s college teaching force under pressure from the Trump administration.

The U.S. Department of Justice has threatened to sue campuses that take part in the Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois, or DFI, fellowship. The program is state funded and was created by Illinois lawmakers in an effort to make the state’s college teaching force look more like the Illinois student body.

The state board that administers the fellowship, and the schools that participate, are pointing the finger at each other over who is responsible for buckling under the federal pressure. Caught in the middle are students who have relied on the program to pursue PhDs and careers in higher education.

Jennifer Torres, a PhD student at the University of Illinois Chicago, was not surprised when Trump officials targeted the fellowship she has relied on for the past four years. But she was surprised by how quickly her university agreed to cut ties with the program.

“Most of us were disappointed, because at the very least we were expecting [UIC] to put up a little bit of a fight as opposed to just saying, ‘They told us to cut it, so we cut it,’” Torres said.

She and other fellows were informed on April 14 that UIC is ending its participation in the DFI fellowship and that funding would be shut off after May.

In an email to students shared with WBEZ, a UIC administrator said the Justice Department had directed the university to withdraw from the program because it violates the Supreme Court’s decision banning race-conscious admissions. That’s despite arguments by legal experts that the ruling does not apply to scholarship programs.

Current and former fellowship recipients are speaking out against the acquiescence, saying this is an important moment for the state and its universities to push back against President Trump’s anti-diversity initiatives.

“If you are true to the values that you claim, the values that are espoused on the university website of ‘education’ and ‘equity’ and and ‘academic freedom’ … then you’ll take the momentary or short-term pain that may come from pushing back on these unfair and unjust perspectives to support all of your students in what they need to be successful,” said Aminah McBryde-Redzovic, a past fellow.

The DFI fellowship provides students from communities that are underrepresented in higher education a monthly stipend, along with mentorship and professional development, to help them pursue advanced degrees. In return, the fellows agree to teach at a college in Illinois after they graduate.

The goal is to make Illinois faculty more representative of the state’s residents, which research has shown improves learning outcomes. Federal data show that 72% of full-time faculty across the country are white. Just 6% are Latino, 7% are Black and 13% are Asian. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , 58% of Illinois residents are white, 19% are Hispanic or Latino, 15% are Black and 6% are Asian.

“As a Black Muslim woman … I want to be able to give other students who look like me and who share my lived experiences an opportunity to connect with somebody and to be mentored by somebody who understands where they’re coming from,” said McBryde-Redzovic, who is pursuing her PhD at UIC and hopes to finish in June.

She and other students who have relied on DFI to pursue advanced degrees and careers in higher education worry that, as UIC and other universities withdraw from the fellowship, graduate studies will become even less accessible to Black and Brown students in Illinois.

Jennifer Torres at her favorite coffee shop in Back of the Yards, where she lives. Torres worries about classmates who were relying on the DFI fellowship to support their graduate studies next year. UIC notified DFI fellows they would not receive funding past May.

“All that these resources were trying to do was make way for all of the people who were excluded, so that academia can look somewhat like how it ideally should have looked if we weren’t living in a racist, patriarchal place,” Torres said.

Torres said she has depended on the fellowship to pay for rent and groceries, and to navigate a career path that is not set up for students like her — students who are first-generation and come from low-income families and communities of color.

“There’s such a huge hidden curriculum that we don’t have access to… like how to write a paper that’s ready for publishing, or how to present at a conference. One of the things that DFI did was support our professional development as scholars and sort of unhide those things for us,” Torres said. “Now people are gonna have to find different ways to do that. They’re gonna have to find support that maybe is not available in their departments.”

UIC spokesperson Sherri Gonzalez McGinnes said the university is committed to supporting the fellows as they “manage this change.” She said the Illinois Board of Higher Education, which administers the fellowship, made the decision to end the program.

IBHE spokesperson José Garcia disputes that. He said the state board and lawmakers agreed only to evaluate the fellowship, which he said is enshrined in state law. He said 115 students are fellows this academic year.

Garcia did not respond when asked to provide a list of schools that have withdrawn from the program since it was targeted by the Justice Department.

Northeastern Illinois University’s DFI page was taken down in recent days. A spokesperson there did not confirm if the campus had pulled out.

A Northwestern University representative said that campus ended its participation last month, but students there have not received the fellowship for a number of years.