U.S. Dept. of Education ends $34.9M grant to Purdue over diversity language

GEAR Up, 6th largest federal grant in Purdue history, aimed tutoring, SAT prep, other help to low-income students, including in Lafayette. Feds: It doesn’t line up with Trump administration priorities

Federal officials are pulling the plug on a seven-year, $34.9 million education grant, touted a year ago as the sixth largest in Purdue history and designed to offer extra academic help to students in nine Indiana school districts – including in Lafayette – as they transition from junior high to high school and to college or the workforce.

In a letter sent by the U.S. Department of Education, dated Sept. 12, federal officials cited diversity language in the initial proposal, saying the GEAR Up program administered by Purdue is “inconsistent with, and no longer effectuates, the best interest of the federal government and will not be continued.”

The grant funding, announced in September 2024 for the Indiana Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), was designed to cover seven years, picking up where a similar, $24.5 million grant awarded in 2016 left off.

The program housed at Purdue’s College of Education is meant to increase the number of students prepared to succeed in post-secondary education and to “conduct research to better understand student STEM learning, persistence and entry into postsecondary study and careers.” The program featured afterschool tutoring services, summer STEM camps, family dinner nights, financial literacy resources and SAT prep, among other things.

According to Purdue, as it announced the latest $34.9 million grant, the federal money was expected to reach 14,300 students in 28 schools across the state, with a focus on Indiana’s 21^st Century Scholars, a scholarship program aimed at getting low-income students into college or training after high school. At the time, Purdue touted a 97% graduation rate for students in the previous GEAR Up program, compared to 87% for low-income students statewide.

The letter from the U.S. Department of Education pointed to portions of the GEAR Up program at Purdue that includes training on diversity, equity and inclusion to help hiring managers “recognize and mitigate unconscious biases throughout the recruitment process.” The letter says Purdue’s program “may conflict with the department’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness and excellence in education.” Because of that, the letter says, Purdue was told to “promptly refund any unobligated funds” connected to the program.

The letter gave Purdue seven business days to appeal.

It wasn’t clear this week whether Purdue filed an appeal. Purdue officials did not immediately respond to questions about the GEAR Up grants, including about the fate of the program and the job status of those on staff. Staff members contacted by BiL declined to comment about the situation.

But letters sent to school superintendents indicated that the program would end Sept. 30.

Lafayette School Corp. Superintendent Les Huddle said his district received a letter Sept. 16 from Purdue with the news.

Huddle said LSC had tutors, paid through GEAR Up funding, working with students this year at Tecumseh Junior High. That support was expected to carry through to Lafayette Jefferson High School in the next several years, he said.

Lafayette School Corp. was part of the project, along with Crawford County Community Schools, Gary Community School Corp., Greater Clark County Schools, Indianapolis Public Schools, Kokomo School Corp., Maconaquah School Corp., Metropolitan School District of Warren Township and Muncie Community Schools.

“We certainly think it was a successful program,” Huddle said. “It just gave our kids the opportunity, if even at minimum, to maybe stay after school and get their homework done there, as opposed to going home and having other things that would interrupt the flow of completing their homework.”

Huddle said LSC was looking for ways to replace some of what GEAR Up offered, including through community partnerships.

“We’ve been fortunate that we’ve had churches and others step up in the past,” Huddle said. “But it looks like this opportunity has come and gone.”

Similar moves by the U.S. Department of Education have been reported in other states. Federal officials there did not immediately respond to questions Wednesday. But Ellen Keast, deputy press director with the Department of Education, said in a statement to Ideastream public media in Ohio on Tuesday that the “Trump Administration is no longer allowing taxpayer dollars to go out the door on autopilot.”

“Many of the non-continued grants use overt race preferences or perpetuate divisive concepts and stereotypes, which no student should be exposed to,” Keast said in response to grant funding decisions in Ohio. “The non-continued grant funds are not being cut; they are being re-invested immediately into high quality programs that better serve aspiring and current college students.”

How much money already had been spent during the first year of a seven-year grant at Purdue and how much of the $34.9 million was left wasn’t immediately clear Wednesday.

Earlier this month, Purdue President Mung Chiang told faculty members of the University Senate that the university was “very sturdy and stable when it comes to federal and industry research funding.” In the wake of a turbulent 2025 for federal funding of universities across the country and uncertainty hovering over work hosted on the West Lafayette campus, Chiang said that in the most recent fiscal year, which ended June 30, “Purdue’s federally funded research programs stayed intact 97%.” Chiang added this: “I was told that it has been the most productive summer on record in terms of federal research dollars, new awards, coming into the university.”

Those comments came four days before the date on the U.S. Department of Education’s letter to Purdue about the GEAR Up grant.

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