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A civil rights complaint recently filed against the University of Central Arkansas alleges that 10 scholarships run by the public university illegally discriminate based on race or sex, appearing to favor female students or students of color.
The complaint uses screenshots taken from the school’s website to back up its claims, flagging scholarships that accept applicants who are specifically “African-American students,” “underserved minority students,” and “Hispanic minority students.”
Several examples cited also only allowed for “female” or “women” applicants, screenshots show.
A spokesperson for the university told The College Fix officials are working to address the issue and update and modify problematic scholarships.
The Equal Protection Project in late October filed its 16-page civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, citing violations of both Title VI and Title IX, which prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, sex, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.
“Our primary goal is to change discriminatory behavior by universities and to open up scholarships to all students without regard to race, color, national origin, or sex,” Cornell University law Professor William Jacobson, the project’s founder, told The College Fix.
When asked what prompted the complaint against UCA, Jacobson said many of the group’s cases result from tips.
“What caught our attention about the discriminatory scholarships at UCA was the large number of them at a public university in a conservative state that opposes DEI,” he said. “This made it somewhat unusual. After investigation, we believed we had a solid basis for filing the complaint.”
“Our goal is not to shut down the scholarships. We want students to get the money, but all students should have a fair and equal shot at the scholarships.”
One of the scholarships in question states it is for “full-time junior or senior African-American students majoring in English, African-American Studies or Writing with a GPA of 3.0 or above.”
The University of Central Arkansas has since changed the requirements to read, “For full-time junior or senior underserved students majoring in English.”
Another example includes the Drew Marshall Gainor Scholarship, which read: “Preference will be given to current Northwestern Mutual interns and to underserved minority students.” UCA has since dropped the “minority” to read “underserved students.”
Tiffany Head, UCA’s director of media relations, told The Fix, “The UCA Foundation has been proactively reviewing and updating scholarship eligibility criteria over multiple years to ensure compliance with federal requirements.”
“Many scholarships have already been modified, but in some cases, older documentation may still appear online while system updates are finalized,” she said via email.
“We have previously addressed OCR questions under both the Biden and Trump administrations related to scholarship language and continue to work collaboratively with OCR to ensure all scholarships align with applicable civil rights laws.”
The University of Central Arkansas was founded in 1907 and is located in Conway, Arkansas. It enrolls 9,962 students. The university touts diversity as one of its core values, stating on its website it is “dedicated to attracting and supporting a diverse student, faculty and staff population and enhanced multicultural learning opportunities.”
“We value the opportunity to work, learn, and develop in a community that embraces the diversity of individuals and ideas, including race, ethnicity, religion, spiritual beliefs, national origin, age, gender, marital status, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, physical ability, political affiliation, and intellectual perspective.”
Head told The Fix that, at this time, the University of Central Arkansas “has not been formally notified of any new complaint being filed with or against the university through the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.”
“Because we have not received official information on this matter, we are unable to provide comment on any specific steps that may be required by OCR.”
The Equal Protection Project has also yet to hear from the Office for Civil Rights.
“It’s not surprising that the Department of Education has been slow to respond, considering the federal government shutdown,” Jacobson said. “But that appears to be ending, so hopefully we will be first in line after reopening.”
According to its website, the project “is devoted to the fair treatment of all persons without regard to race or ethnicity. Our guiding principle is that there is no ‘good’ form of racism. The remedy for racism never is more racism.”
The complaint against UCA fits into the Equal Protection Project’s broader efforts to challenge DEI-related policies on college campuses.
“EPP has challenged over 550 programs or scholarships at over 120 institutions,” Jacobson said. “Our goal is to remove race- and sex-based barriers to students obtaining funding for college. This promotes a culture of equality which, unfortunately, has been replaced on many campuses by a culture of ‘equity’ that judges students based on group identity.”
