SUNY pushes back on Trump’s second term

Kapil Longani has finished just a little over two years in his role serving as senior vice chancellor and general counsel at SUNY, and like many attorneys in higher education, has braced himself for the return of President Donald Trump. This time, the president has begun his second term by bulldozing his way through the federal government with threats of funding cuts for higher education institutions that do not comply with his agenda.

Longani, whose experience includes serving as counsel to then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio from 2018 to 2021, serving as senior counsel to then-Rep. Elijah Cummings, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and working as federal prosecutor, told City & State that SUNY is ready for Trump and that the system’s 64 colleges and universities throughout the state won’t back away from their commitment to their students and their rights.

City & State sat down with Longani to discuss how SUNY plans to fend off the Trump administration’s attempts to reverse initiatives that led to the implementation of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and why tackling this affront on the system is personal for him. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The first admissions cycle since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision banning race-conscious admissions has now passed. What has been the result of the ban? Let me start by saying diversity is our strength at SUNY. SUNY is a microcosm of New York, and not just New York City, but New York state. And without diversity, we have nothing. Diversity is truly our strength. We’re not going to back down from fighting for what is right, whether that’s on Capitol Hill or in the courts. We’re going to ensure that our campuses remain bastions of diversity. Our mission statement says – and it was written 75 years ago – that SUNY will always provide to the people of New York educational services of the highest quality with the broadest possible access, fully representative of all segments of the population.

There is a place for every New Yorker at SUNY, period, end of story. And nothing in the Supreme Court’s decision or the subsequent executive orders that have been issued by the president changes that one iota.

In the aftermath of the decision, SUNY said its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion would remain unchanged. Where does that stand today?

This is very personal for me. I’m the son of two immigrants. I myself am an immigrant, born in India. I came to the United States when I was about 8 months old, and I’ve lived my entire life here. In my younger days, I grew up in the Midwest, in Detroit. And Detroit is a melting pot. I never really talked about or thought about the implications of my race, because Detroit is a rainbow. There are people of all colors that surround you day and night.

When I was in eighth grade, I moved to a small town in Florida because my dad got his dream job at NASA. My dad’s name is Hans Longani, and that’ll become relevant to what I’m going to tell you in a moment. Like most immigrants, we bought a house that was part of our American dream. When we went to the closing for that house, I accompanied my father. We walked into that house, and sitting there was the owner of the house, along with his real estate agent. He knew my dad’s name, but that was it, and I think he fully expected, because my dad’s name is Hans Longani, that a white man was going to walk through the door. His eyes popped out of his head when he saw my father, because he was not of Italian or German descent he turned to his real estate broker and said, “We don’t sell to people that don’t look like us.”

That triggered a lifelong commitment to understanding racial equality and fighting against discrimination and unknown to me at the time, it would lead me to becoming a lawyer. So when you ask what SUNY is doing right now to ensure that we remain diverse, it’s a deeply personal question for me. I want to first give a lot of credit to Chancellor John King and our board Chair Merryl Tisch, who have really been at the forefront of this battle. They’ve set out an agenda that, in my mind, allows me and my team to fight the legal fight to ensure that SUNY can meet its commitment to remain the most diverse public institution of higher education in the country.

OK, what has SUNY been doing to ensure that it continues meeting that commitment?

First and foremost, we’ve doubled down on recruiting and outreach to underrepresented people of color. Secondly, we have implemented race-neutral criteria for scholarships. For example, we focused on Pell Grant recipients, AmeriCorps, immigrants, first-generation students and veterans, all race-neutral criteria. We’ve expanded tuition assistance. We’ve launched SUNY’s first-ever direct admissions program, where SUNY will automatically admit the top 10% of all high school students to at least one selective SUNY campus. That program is going to take effect for select high school seniors preparing to enroll for the fall 2025 semester. My office is also working with the state attorney general’s office and the governor’s office very closely to ensure we’re all swimming in the same direction. I really want to credit them as well for the work they’ve done in this area.

How are you communicating your stand against the second Trump administration? 

Our work is not just limited to the internal communications within government. It’s also external. It’s really important that we communicate our mission and our goals and our values and the fact that our commitment to diversity has not changed, not just internally, but externally to the public. I’ve done presentations and panels across the state with legislators, including, for example, former Assembly Member Pat Fahy, who used to chair the Assembly’s Higher Education Committee. I’ve sat on panels with school superintendents and legal experts. Chancellor King appointed me to the New York State Bar Association’s task force on advancing diversity that was co-chaired by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. That task force provided SUNY with a great platform, again, to emphasize how we are going to continue to remain diverse.

Circling back to your personal story, I just wanted to note that it was very powerful.

People of color, every one of us, have experienced racism in some way. But the direct racism (I experienced), the fact that you know this is part of the American dream, and that it was snatched away on account of your race, how can it not affect your life? Little do you know at 11 or 12 years old, when a moment is going to resonate with you years later and lead you to commit yourself to public service and ensuring that people have a voice. You give a voice to the voiceless, and try to level the playing field.

Let’s pivot over to another topic. In the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, there was considerable campus unrest across the country. What legal tools do you have at your disposal to combat antisemitism at SUNY?

The safety of our students is paramount. You can’t get an education if you're afraid to go to class, if you’re afraid to go to the cafeteria, if you’re afraid to go to a campus event. Regardless of one’s background or religion, my job first and foremost, is to use every single legal tool at my disposal to ensure that our campus community feels safe and with the chancellor and the chair of our board, I believe we have done so.

In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, I made a commitment to learning more about antisemitism. I spent a lot of time working with friends in groups like Hillel to really get a much deeper understanding of the history of antisemitism. Antisemitism, as I learned, is a unique type of prejudice and understanding that is really helpful in thinking about how to combat it.

One of the strongest tools that we’ve used is Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which has helped keep our campuses safe across the state. Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin and in some cases, religion. We have used Title VI, not only to protect people against antisemitism, but our students against Islamophobia and many other discriminatory and harassing acts.

I was raised to always stand against antisemitism and for a while thought it had gone away. But now we see that it never really went away. It’s a scary time.

I agree with you. I grew up in a really diverse environment. I was surrounded by Jewish people, and I did not understand the depth of antisemitism in our country until the aftermath of Oct. 7. That’s what really triggered my journey in terms of learning more about antisemitism. I have to give a lot of credit to our board chair, who has also spent a lot of time educating me and others on antisemitism, along with our chancellor. From the very beginning, Chancellor King came out and drew a line in the sand. He said we will not tolerate antisemitism on our campuses. And we have used every legal tool in our arsenal to ensure that our students remain safe.

How has SUNY balanced the right to free speech with your obligation to keep the campus community safe?

The First Amendment is at the height of its power on a public campus, but nothing in the Constitution, including the First Amendment, places speech above safety. I think there was this feeling across our country that you could just say whatever you want on campus if it was a public space. That is not what the Supreme Court has said. Nothing in the Constitution, for example, allows you to use violence in exercising your right to free speech. Every person on our campuses has the right to peacefully protest. We fought tooth and nail to protect everyone’s rights on both sides of this tough issue, and we’ve said repeatedly that protests cannot be used as an excuse to harass or discriminate against someone. The First Amendment is not a license to threaten or harass people, and antisemitism and Islamophobia should be fought at every turn. No one has the right to threaten or endanger someone. My team has worked aggressively to shut down actions that cross that line.

My duty, and again this is really personal for me, is to provide a safe environment for our students to reach their educational dreams, and we will use every tool, including Title VI, to ensure that happens.

One of SUNY’s four pillars is DEI. How are the Trump administration’s actions affecting SUNY’s ability to continue to support programs that support DEI?

The clear intent behind these executive orders is to chill and end all DEI efforts. The administration is doing that, in my opinion, by equating diversity, equity and inclusion with unlawfulness at every turn. We believe that the vast majority of programs that fall under the DEI rubric are constitutional. You can’t overrule lawful DEI practices that are constitutional with an executive order. That’s just not permissible. The strategy here again is to chill people and convince them to change their programs in anticipation of potential consequences if they don’t. Our chancellor has been crystal clear: We are not going to participate in anticipatory compliance. 

SUNY is going to continue to fight this fight alongside the state attorney general and the governor’s office, who have been immensely supportive in backing SUNY up as we have assured our thousands of employees and students that our commitment to DEI remains unabated.

Can you talk about the different approaches that the Biden and Trump administrations have had toward Title IX rules on the rights complainants and respondents have in the context of sexual harassment and sexual assault complaints.

I’m very passionate about protecting victims and ensuring that they feel empowered to report sexual assault. And Title IX is one tool for victims of harassment or assault to use when reporting sexual assault. Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or entity that receives federal funding, and that includes sexual harassment and assault. In 2024 under President Biden, new Title IX regulations went into effect that, in my opinion, led to greater protections for students and an improved complaint process. But at the beginning of this year, the 2024 regs reverted back to an earlier set of regulations issued in 2020 by the Trump administration that most legal experts believe make things more difficult for victims to report sexual assault.

I’ll give you a quick example, cross examination. Anyone who’s ever prosecuted a case or participated as a victim in a criminal matter involving sexual assault, knows the toughest part of trial is cross examination. It is very, very difficult and traumatic for most victims of sexual assault to recount some of the most difficult moments of their life in public under aggressive cross examination. Under the 2024 rules, victims were asked questions through a hearing panel, which is far less traumatizing than under the 2020 rules where cross examination occurs via a respondent’s adviser or lawyer.

I want to reiterate that here at SUNY, we remain committed, regardless of the regulations in place. We remain committed to maintaining a learning and working environment free from sexual harassment, sex-based harassment and unlawful discrimination. And we will use all our tools, including New York state law, to ensure that all perpetrators of sexual assault are held accountable.

How has or will the Trump administration’s priorities impact higher education, and in particular public institutions like SUNY?

It has greatly impacted my day-to-day work, for sure. The takeaway from everything we have been through over the last few weeks is that SUNY is going to follow the law, but we will also fight back every instance that the administration tries to impact our students or campuses in an unconstitutional way. We will not take that sitting down. We will do whatever we have to do to ensure the funding for our campuses and our researchers who are doing life-saving work. 

The moment the administration came into office, there were questions about what to do about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, what to do if ICE showed up on our campuses. We were very clear with our entire campus community that anytime ICE shows up on our campuses, they were to reach out to the university police department and to my office, the office of the general counsel. And why? Because we are not going to allow ICE to access immigration data without legal review. We are not just going to turn over sensitive personal information about our faculty or our students to ICE. We are not just going to willy-nilly turn over the names of people or their immigration status, for example, without judicial warrants, without court orders. And that’s consistent with the guidance that’s been provided to us by Gov. Hochul and the state Attorney General’s office.

The other thing I would say on that is to take the administration at their word. There’s a lot of anxiety that many of us are feeling, especially as it pertains to immigration issues, and the administration has said they’re focused at this point on removing violent criminals, and that’s what we’ve seen so far in New York. That’s the administration’s target, not law-abiding members of our society, like our students, who are simply trying to get to class in order to reach their educational goals.

There are also other federal actions that are deeply affecting our campuses that have a broader impact outside of our campuses, and we’re challenging those as well. For example, the National Institutes of Health issued a notice reducing indirect cost rates to 15%. This has a massive impact on important life-saving research that’s being done. For example, over the next six months, if that cap was in place, SUNY would lose close to $80 million in federal research funds.That research saves lives. It is research that is being done on how to cure Alzheimer’s in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, things that affect millions of Americans. This isn’t hypothetical because of the nature of how significant the effect of that cut would be.

We heard the NIH cut was ordered on a Friday. We spent the entire weekend working with the state Attorney General’s office to provide declarations in support of a lawsuit seeking a restraining order that was filed on that Monday, and we got that restraining order. It’s just an example of the point that I’ve been trying to make, the administration is going to continue to issue orders. They’re going to continue to issue mandates, and we are going to follow the law, but where they cross the line, we will fight back, and we will fight hard with the support of our chancellor, our board chair, the state attorney general and the governor’s office.

OK, last question. When we last spoke, you had only been at SUNY for a few months. You’ve now been in your role for two years, overseeing the issues affecting hundreds of thousands of students at 64 campuses. Was the role what you expected, and what are the most interesting aspects of your job?

At SUNY, I serve as counsel in the traditional sense of providing legal advice and expertise, but I’m also a counselor in that I serve as an adviser and thought partner to the chancellor and the board and our 64 presidents. I’ve learned so much from working with the chancellor and board. And the great thing about this job is there are new challenges that arise every single day in higher ed. Higher ed law is increasingly complex, but it’s fascinating, and every single day is different. Over the last two years, in particular, higher ed and its legal issues have been on the front page almost every single day, and getting to handle those issues on behalf of a multibillion-dollar corporation like SUNY and overseeing the legal affairs of every one of these campuses, who play such a prominent role in their individual communities all over the state, never gets boring. Because each one of them has such unique challenges, from working to to keep students safe in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks of Israel, to making sure that our campuses remain a vibrant place to express a variety of opinions, to ensuring that after the Supreme Court’s decision on race-conscious admissions, SUNY commitment to DEI remained unabated, to advising on the Title IX revisions, to fighting back against unconstitutional executive orders.

The challenges here are never-ending, but through all these challenges, SUNY remains a place where everyone is welcome, and it’s a deeply personal challenge to ensure that that mission remains just as true today as it was more than 75 years ago (when the system was established).