California State University campuses are among those that have pledged to sever ties with organizations that help people of color under pressure from the Trump administration, an investigation by the Washington Post has found.
The Cal State system said it would end Cal Poly Pomona’s relationship with a nonprofit service group, the Links Inc., after determining that the group appears to restrict participation based on race, according to The Post, whose reporting came from documents obtained through a public records request. The Post reported that two other Cal State campuses, Cal State San Bernardino and Cal Poly Humboldt, have also reached settlements with the Trump administration over investigations related to the PhD Project, a nonprofit that helps Black, Latino or Native American students earn doctorates in business.
The Cal State campuses were among more than a dozen universities that The Post found have quietly signed pacts with the Trump administration to resolve the investigations related to the PhD Project. Those agreements included a promise that the colleges would look for relationships with any other groups that “restrict participation based on race” and either end those partnerships or explain why they were not doing so, according to records reviewed by The Post.
Cal Poly Pomona spokesperson Cynthia Peters said in a statement to The Post that the university “remains committed to ensuring all programs and partnerships comply fully with applicable federal and state nondiscrimination laws.” The Post reported that Cal Poly Pomona’s relationship with the Links started in 2017 and that the last event related to the partnership was held in January 2025.
The Links said its work with Cal Poly Pomona included mentorship sessions open to all students and that Links membership is also open to all people regardless of race. Its president, Ethel Isaacs Williams, said in a statement to The Post that the allegation that the organization discriminates is “a serious mischaracterization of who we are as volunteer-leaders and what we stand for.” The Links website says its membership comprises “more than 17,000 professional women of African descent” who are “committed to enriching, sustaining and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry.”
Separately, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced Thursday that it had obtained 31 resolution agreements with colleges and universities to cut ties to the PhD Project, including UC Berkeley. A department press release said the universities had either already ended their partnerships with the PhD Project or agreed, through agreements with federal authorities, to do so. A University of California media contact did not immediately return a request for comment.
Neither Cal State San Bernardino nor Cal Poly Humboldt was listed in the Department of Education press release as having signed resolution agreements related to the PhD Project, and it was not immediately clear how the settlements reported by The Post related to the agreements described in the federal agency’s announcement. The Post reported that the settlements involving the PhD Project generally did not include monetary penalties.