The University of Illinois system issued guidance instructing campuses to stop considering race, color, national origin or sex in hiring, tenure, promotion and student financial-aid decisions. The directive replaces the system’s Affirmative Action Plan with a nondiscrimination and merit-based hiring policy, officials said. The move drew immediate pushback from faculty union leaders at UIC, who said the change was issued without shared-governance bargaining and warned that it could be applied retroactively to dossiers now under review. System leaders cited concerns about legal and reputational risk in the current political climate. The decision highlights tensions between system offices and campus faculty governance and raises immediate questions about scholarship, donor-funded awards, and institutional commitments to diversity across hiring and financial-aid practices.