The Trump administration plans to revamp a federally funded career website that lists hundreds of college scholarships for women and students of color to align it with the president’s mission to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs, according to interviews and a public notice.
The website, called CareerOneStop, includes a tool that lets people narrow their search for scholarships to certain criteria, including race and sex. In addition, dozens of other scholarships listed on the site are reserved for people with disabilities or those who identify as LGBTQ+. Scholarships on the site appear to be funded largely by an array of private groups, including foundations, associations, fraternities, unions and other organizations.
The listings present something of a contradiction for the administration, which has touted its intent to eliminate diversity efforts in higher education, while continuing to advertise diversity scholarships on a website it funds and oversees.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development operates the website for the Labor Department. But the Trump administration told The Washington Post that it plans to end its affiliation with the state in the coming months, bring the website in-house and overhaul the portal.
The Labor Department declined to answer questions about the scholarship listings on the website — which also offers information on careers, job training and employment opportunities. But the White House vowed to make changes to reflect the administration’s anti-DEI agenda.
“President Trump was resoundingly elected with a clear mandate to end divisive, racist policies and restore merit and efficiency,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement. “The Department of Labor is bringing this particular program in house to fix its services as this Administration continues to eliminate the DEI policies that ran rampant during the Biden Administration.”
The plan to change the website follows moves by many colleges, foundations and other organizations to replace scholarship criteria based on race and sex with broader qualifications under pressure from the Trump administration, lawsuits and activists. The National Scholarship Providers Association found that the percentage of scholarships it tracks that had eligibility requirements based on race, ethnicity, gender or other demographic factors has dropped from 15 percent in 2023 to 11 percent in 2026.
Last year, the Education Department opened investigations into several universities that offered scholarships to racial minority students, including the University of Louisville’s Dawn Wilson Scholarship for “undergraduate LGBTQ+ students of color” and the Louisville Tango Festival Scholarship for “Latino/a/x and Hispanic students.” A University of Louisville spokesman said the school has addressed the issue and no longer uses race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation as factors to award scholarships.
In addition, the Education Department previously advised colleges that they generally cannot restrict scholarships on the basis of sex, with certain exceptions.
Conservative activists have sued private entities for offering race-based scholarships or filed complaints with the IRS against nonprofits offering such aid, arguing it amounts to racial discrimination that could jeopardize the organizations’ tax-exempt status or violate laws banning discrimination in contracts.
Some funders, however, contend it’s important to preserve and advertise financial aid for historically marginalized groups.
The American Indian College Fund, for instance, offers scholarships listed on CareerOneStop for tribal members and their descendants.
“It is a good resource and very much needed by prospective and current students,” said Cheryl Crazy Bull, president of the Denver-based fund. “It needs good maintenance and updating.”
Crazy Bull said scholarships like those offered by the fund can help people who have historically been underrepresented in higher education. She noted that Native Americans generally come from poorer families with limited resources to pay for college costs.
“Having access to scholarships removes that barrier,” she said. Crazy Bull also noted that scholarships for Native Americans should have special legal protection because of treaties and other historical agreements between the U.S. government and tribes.
Though women outnumber men in higher education, some scholarship providers direct awards to women, particularly in fields dominated by men. A smaller number of scholarships on the federal website are aimed at men.
The Labor Department has asked Minnesota for some changes to the website, such as removing the word “diversity” from some pages, but hadn’t requested any changes to the scholarship listings, according to the governor’s office.
As of Friday, CareerOneStop still featured hundreds of other scholarships with demographic restrictions, including a $10,000 scholarship for female law students of African American descent who either live or study in New Jersey; $16,000 fellowship awards to help racial minority students pursue doctoral degrees in the sciences; and aid for “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Asian and Pacific Islanders” from the San Francisco Bay Area.
At least some of the listings appear to be outdated. For instance, the site lists a Gates Foundation scholarship for minority high school seniors, but the foundation says it opened up the award to low-income students of any race last year.
A spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development said the scholarship data comes from Gale, a vendor that has supplied information for the site for nearly two decades. She said the Labor Department is responsible for the website’s content.
The Trump administration also plans to make broader changes to the site.
“While CareerOneStop is widely used and valued, the current experience can be fragmented and difficult to navigate,” the administration said in a request for public comment on ways to “modernize” the site. The request for comment does not specifically mention the scholarship directory.
The comment period ends Monday.
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