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Among them: Removing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility statements from job postings; eliminating related programs, services and committees; and adding a new non-discrimination statement to all UA websites.

Republican Senate President Warren Petersen praised the letter, and “the effort to eradicate discriminatory DEI programs and practices,” in a post Wednesday on the social media platform X. He attached Garimella’s letter, dated April 1, in his post, and also wrote, “All eyes are now on Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University ... to comply with the law.”

The letter comes as the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature is advancing a measure to eliminate state funds for universities and colleges that offer courses on diversity, equity and inclusion, and as Republican President Donald Trump has pledged to withhold federal funding for universities that do not eliminate DEIA activities.

Garimella wrote to Petersen that the UA has “conducted an expedited review to collect data from all academic and non-academic units regarding DEIA-related activities” over the last few weeks, and that he has ordered these changes:

— The UA’s administrative units and personnel have started discontinuing “preferential treatment activities and programming” within their units.

— College deans were given a list of DEIA activities within their units and asked to implement changes.

— Non-academic service units — such as student affairs, athletics, Office of Research Innovation and Impact — conducted unit-specific DEIA reviews, made plans for changes and are executing them.

— The UA posted a page titled, “,” “which reiterates its opposition to all forms of bias,” including antisemitism and Islamophobia, and a link to this page is on every UA webpage and is being added to all subdomain websites.

— In February, the UA also removed its diversity and inclusion statement that used to be included in each job posting.

The listed changes had not been publicly communicated by the UA until Petersen posted the letter.

Garimella did send out a university-wide notice Feb. 18, stating the UA administration was taking “an inventory of our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA)-related programs, jobs and activities.”

The UA also took down its website for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and removed the words “committed to diversity and inclusion” from its widely-used land acknowledgement statement, both also mentioned by Garimella in the letter.

Garimella ended the letter by saying, “We will keep you informed as this work moves towards completion.”

The April 1 letter seems to be the second communication sent by Garimella, who became UA president in October, to Petersen, as the senator mentioned a former communication on Feb. 17 where Garimella informed the state Senate of the UA’s DEIA inventory.

UA spokesperson Mitch Zak responded to a request for comment Thursday on the letter: “Interim Provost Ron Marx provided an update to the university community with the latest information and resources to support students, faculty and staff. University leaders continue to take a measured approach to address the new federal guidance impacting higher education institutions nationwide." 

The letter was sent to Petersen on the day a UA DEIA collective had set as a deadline for administrators including Garimella, Marx and the Arizona Board of Regents to respond to the collective’s letter of demands to restore the university’s commitment to DEIA, keep the UA’s seven Cultural and Resource Centers, and increase transparency.

Zak did not answer specific questions on whether Garimella had informed the DEIA collective and university community of having sent the letter to Petersen. He also did not say what further actions were being planned to eliminate more DEIA-related activities.

However, Zak did say no final decisions have been made regarding the cultural centers.

The collective, made up of faculty, students and staff connected to the cultural centers, has been in the fight to restore DEIA and the centers for many weeks. In addition to the letter of demands, UA faculty, staff and students have also staged protests — including one on the day of Garimella’s official installation ceremony, and one in which a DEIA petition with more than 3,000 signatures was hand-delivered to UA’s administrative offices last month.

According to staffers at the cultural centers, they have heard of a plan from Marx, the interim provost, to centralize six of the seven cultural centers: Asian Pacific American Student Affairs, African American Student Affairs, the Guerrero Student Center, LGBTQ Student Affairs, the Women & Gender Resource Center, and the Disability Cultural Center. The seventh cultural center, Native American Student Affairs, isn’t at immediate risk of being centralized, because Indigenous students are legally a protected political identity, the collective previously said.

Garimella didn’t address this supposed centralization plan, unconfirmed by UA officials, in his letter to Petersen.

UA professor Vanessa Perry said Thursday she is disappointed to see Garimella’s letter to Petersen but not surprised, and that UA leadership has been working behind the scenes and “obviously” has a plan of how they will comply with Trump’s anti-DEI executive order. “Even with this letter, CRCs (cultural and resource centers) still do not know what awaits them next year,” she said, adding UA leaders “could not be bothered to respond to the UA DEIA Collective’s list of demands.”

“True leadership would have meant transparency and collaboration in decisions that will have tremendous reverberations throughout our university community, but instead UA leaders have opted for ambiguity and closed door conversations. We are all left in the dark,” Perry wrote to the ����Ӱ��AV.

Petersen wrote on X that he appreciates UA’s cooperation to ensure students and staff are not provided “preferential treatment based on their skin color, national origin, religious preferences, their sex, or their sexuality.”

“President Trump is restoring common sense in America, and Arizona Senate Republicans stand ready to assist in any way we can,” he wrote.