Staff at Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, also told to remove ‘gender-identifying pronouns' from email signatures

Greg Norman By Greg Norman

The head of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, says the school is "taking steps to close all agency Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) offices and end all DEIA-related contracts in accordance with President Trump’s executive orders," according to an email obtained by Fox News.

The Naval Academy clarified after publication that it has not had a DEI office since at least the summer of 2024, to align with the Fiscal Year 2024 defense spending bill passed by Congress, and that no office has been closed as a result of the executive order.

The message sent to staff by Vice Adm. Yvette Davids in late January began by noting, "The President has directed that the following information be forwarded to all employees."

"We are taking steps to close all agency Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) offices and end all DEIA-related contracts in accordance with President Trump’s executive orders titled Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions," it said.

"Concerns have been raised that some of these programs may have been modified in a way that obscures their DEIA objectives," Davids added.