Office of Community and Belonging Replaces DEI at Marist
A student looking at the new website of the Office of Community and Belonging. Photo by Ava Battinelli '26.
The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has been replaced with the Office of Community and Belonging at Marist University. Dr. Edward Antonio, the former vice president of the Office of DEI, will lead the new office.
“This was an opportunity for us to be very clear about what it means at Marist to strive to be an inclusive community with a deep sense of belonging, recognizing there has been a lot of dialogue about this important work,” President Kevin C. Weinman said.
This change comes after months of federal attacks on DEI programs in higher education. Marist is now one of many institutions that have renamed or removed their DEI program in 2025.
However, according to the Director of Media Relations at Marist, Anthony Proia, there have not been any direct federal threats about the DEI programs at Marist.
Marist’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion was established in the fall of 2022 with the hiring of Antonio. Over the past three years, the office has provided events, training and newsletters aimed to celebrate diversity on campus.
Though the Office of Community and Belonging will be run by the same people, Antonio emphasized the distinction in his email on Oct. 3.
“The change in name is more than cosmetic: it signals an important shift that I believe better captures the spirit and substance of our work since I arrived at Marist,” Antonio said.
Weinman first announced the change in an email on Oct. 1. Since then, there have been mixed responses from students.
A chalk message outside Dyson question the replacement of the Office of DEI on Oct. 2. Photo courtesy of Itati Serrano '26.
“I’m not surprised, but it is disappointing and concerning that our leadership would so evidently and so quickly concede before they had to,” Neil Palmieri ‘26 said.
As the vice president of the Black Student Union and deputy vice president of DEI for SGA, Marcus Francis ‘27 was also discouraged by the lack of fight from the institution.
“I understand from a financial and legal standpoint. I'm a criminal justice major, so I understand why they're doing it, but I'm a little disappointed,” Francis said. “As a Black student, I am disappointed.”
Other students believe the office replacement is the right decision to protect the university.
“I think it’s less caving and more making necessary concessions for the overall work to be done in a tumultuous environment. You are already having universities under attack. Of the battles to fight, there are other battles that are more consequential,” Griffin Carey ‘26 said.
For Tori Cardone ‘26, the president of Fox Pride, the lack of clarity about the motivations behind this decision is a cause of concern.
“I wish I had gotten a peek behind the curtain of what's going on here. Is it that we're straying super far and trying to push diversity under the covers of community, or are we trying to make it so that it's just a new name, new coat of paint and that's it?” Cardone said.
Though he has hope for the future, Francis believes the name used can have an impact on the work done.
“With the name change comes different sets of values. Diversity, equity and inclusion is different than community and belonging,” Francis said. “I think that we'll just have to see how the transition goes. Hopefully, the message and the goals stay the same with the goals of DEI.”