AACC President Dawn Lindsay has created a task force to monitor the potential impact on the college of President Donald Trump’s many executive orders.

Vice Presidents Melissa Beardmore and Felicia Patterson are running the Federal Compliance and Regulatory Response Team, which includes members from multiple departments on campus.

“The college must be ready for the possibility of quick, sweeping changes that could impact our operations, faculty, staff and students,” Lindsay said in a Jan. 28 email.

During Trump’s first week back in office, he signed multiple executive orders, including one aimed at disbanding diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives in federally funded spaces.

More recently, on Feb. 14, The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights issued a Dear Colleague letter that suggests colleges that receive federal funding and fail to disband their DEI programs within 14 days of the letter will lose that funding.

AACC and its students receive approximately $18 million a year in federal grants and loans, Beardmore said.

However, Beardmore said, “That letter is not legally binding. I have no reason to believe that the funds that we talked about are going to be pulled back in 14 days.”

Still, the college is “in a holding pattern,” according to Beardmore, who said administrators are not taking any steps to dismantle AACC’s diversity programs while they wait for guidance from the Maryland Office of The Attorney General and the Maryland Higher Education Commission.

“The Dear Colleague letter is vague,” Beardmore said. “So, you know, we think holding and waiting is the best approach for our college community.”

The newly created response team is taking inventory and assessing which departments might be affected on campus.

“Whether inside or outside of the classroom, we’re always making sure that we’re doing things in a way that’s equitable,” Patterson said. “So that will continue to be our focus.”

The last time Lindsay formed a team like this was during the COVID-19 pandemic, Beardmore said.

Beardmore and Patterson emphasized they will watch and prepare for developments that would affect students.

“We will actively review any potential impacts of the executive orders as they come,” Patterson said. “That helps us to ensure that we’re being compliant, and also that we’re prioritizing student success.”

Beardmore acknowledged the uncertainty of the upcoming months and pledged to keep students informed.

“There is no one-size-fits-all in terms of how executive orders may impact us,” Beardmore said.