CU Center for Asian Studies Gets Funding Cut

Photos courtesy of Elena Rodriguez, 2025

El Diario de la Gente

On Sept. 10, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced it would cease funding for multiple Minority-Serving Institutions’ (MSI) grant programs throughout the U.S., including several programs throughout University of Colorado (CU) Systems such as Denver, Anschutz and Boulder, which are considered a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI), respectively, as well as Boulder’s Center for Asian Studies (CAS). The CAS has responded with a letter for campus leaders to sign, requesting the university sign onto a “bridge commitment for 2025-26, and a multi-year plan to stabilize CAS going forward to maintain the faculty and staff capacity required to compete for grants and attract private donors.”

In a post on LinkedIn by CAS Faculty Director Rachel Rinaldo, she says, “[National Resource Centers/Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS)] funding since 2022 allowed for a significant ramp-up of our activities. We hired a teaching professor to teach classes on climate and society in Asia; covered the salary of a teaching professor to teach Tibetan, Himalayan, and contemplative studies; provided increased support for Asia-related events across campus; provided FLAS scholarships to over a dozen undergraduate and graduate students; and expanded our K-12 professional development offerings.” Now that this funding is gone, CAS is in a state of limbo, with everything mentioned by Rinaldo now at risk of being lost or cut back significantly. The CAS has also “prepared a rough 4-year budget,” as stated in their letter in response to the funding cuts that they hope CU can take up. The cut funding will result in a loss of an expected $537,765.

The ED stated in its announcement of funding cuts that the reason for ceasing MSI funding was that they “discriminate by conferring government benefits exclusively to institutions that meet racial or ethnic quotas.” Former CEO of WWE and current Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, stated, “Discrimination based upon race or ethnicity has no place in the United States. To further our commitment to ending discrimination in all forms across federally supported programs, the Department will no longer award Minority-Serving Institution grants that discriminate by restricting eligibility to institutions that meet government-mandated racial quotas.”