Bradley U. offers illegal race-based program for black, LQBTQ students, complaint alleges

Bradley University’s Hometown Scholars Program, an initiative led by the Office of Inclusive Excellence, offers scholarships and academic services to students based on their race, a new federal complaint alleges. 

Specifically, the program selects “Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Multiracial students, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and first-generation college students” according to the Office of Inclusive Excellence webpage.

The webpage also states that this initiative was created to promote a “welcoming and empowering environment,” and is particularly geared toward “historically underrepresented communities.”

The Equal Protection Project has challenged the program, contesting that the racial requirements are a direct violation of federal law.

The EPP, an initiative of the Legal Insurrection Foundation, exists to fight unlawful discrimination in various forms. According to the Legal Insurrection website, the project has challenged over 800 discriminatory programs and scholarships across 275 colleges since its creation.

EPP President William Jacobson told The Fix, “We file complaints when we have enough evidence to demonstrate what we believe to be a clear civil rights violation.”

“The Equal Protection Project calls on the senior administration of Bradley University to make sure nondiscrimination standards are upheld throughout the institution,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson added that every student deserves a fair and equal opportunity. 

He told The Fix that the goal of the Department of Education complaint is not to eliminate the program itself, but to end its discriminatory race- and ethnicity-based promotion and eligibility requirements. Further, the school administration must fully address the consequences of its discrimination.

“Every student should have a fair and equal opportunity to participate in the program without regard to race, color, or national origin,” Jacobson said.

“Bradley University has strong non-discrimination policies and should live up to its own rules and remove the discriminatory eligibility barriers it has erected,” he said.

Jacobson also told The Fix that there are multiple instances of similar racial discrimination in other college admissions and scholarship programs.

This year, the EPP filed 11 complaints against “geographically targeted scholarships” that accept students based on their race. The schools included the University of Richmond, University of Central Arkansas, and University of Missouri, St. Louis.

EPP Chief Counsel Maureen Riordan laid out the legal basis of their work in an interview with The Fix. 

She said, “The idea embodied in Title VI is straightforward: if an institution is fueled by public tax dollars, it has a legal and ethical mandate to serve the public without prejudice.”

“Federal law requires that all students regardless of race have equal access to educational resources,” Riordan said. “The Equal Protection Project is laser focused on ensuring that institutions that accept federal funding adhere to these laws.”

Additionally, Riordan emphasized the ethical importance of equality. She told The Fix, “The integrity of higher education relies on merit and equal opportunity. When universities and colleges parse out programs and benefits based upon race it not only violates the law, but it casts a shadow over the genuine hard work of students from all backgrounds.”

The Fix reached out to the Office of Inclusive Excellence at BU for comment and did not receive a response. BU spokesperson Libby Derry declined to comment as a matter of policy.

The U.S. Department of Education announced earlier this year that it launched Title VI investigations into 45 universities for reportedly using “race-exclusionary practices” in their graduate programs, The College Fix previously reported.

Some of the universities under investigation include Arizona State University, Cornell University, Duke University, New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California State University, San Bernardino, Ohio State University, and Rutgers University.

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