West Point disbands student groups for women and minorities

The United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., has shut down a dozen student affinity clubs to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders to eliminate federal funding for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and ensure that no member of the military “be preferred or disadvantaged on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, color, or creed,” The Washington Post reported.

The Asian-Pacific Forum Club, the National Society of Black Engineers Club and the Latin Cultural Club are among the campus groups ordered to shut down, according to a memo sent Tuesday from Chad Foster, deputy commandant at West Point, to the Directorate of Cadet Activities.

The memo orders all the identified clubs to “permanently cease all activities” and “unpublish, deactivate, archive or otherwise remove all public facing content.” It also orders the dozens of other clubs at West Point to “cease all activity” until they have been reviewed to ensure compliance with Trump’s executive orders and guidance from the Army and the Department of Defense. 

Below is the full list of disbanded clubs, including some with decades-long histories at West Point, according to the Post:

• The Asian-Pacific Forum Club
• The Contemporary Cultural Affairs Seminar Club
• The Corbin Forum
• The Japanese Forum Club
• The Korean-American Relations Seminar
• The Latin Cultural Club
• The Native American Heritage Forum
• The National Society of Black Engineers (West Point chapter)
• The Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers (West Point chapter)
• The Society of Women Engineers (West Point chapter)
• Spectrum
• The Vietnamese-American Cadet Association