Nonprofits target schools for race, sex-based awards, programs
Numerous federal civil rights complaints have been filed by various organizations since the start of President Donald Trump’s administration with the goal of ending race and sex-based discrimination on campuses across the nation.
Two of the experts leading the charge on some of these complaints told The College Fix they are hopeful the new administration will take action to address these issues.
The Equal Protection Project, Defending Education, and Do No Harm are three groups behind a number of the complaints filed under Title VI and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibit institutions that receive public funding from engaging in discrimination on the basis of race or sex.
In April, legal advocacy group EPP filed complaints against Drake University, Westfield State University, Pennsylvania College of Technology, and the University of Alabama.
These complaints allege unlawful discrimination through race and sex-based scholarships—such as Westfield’s six restricted scholarships, Penn College’s 12 discriminatory programs, Drake’s $500 awards for “incoming domestic students of color,” and UA’s black-only scholarships.
“In all of our cases the primary goal is to stop the discrimination and to open the program or scholarship to all students without regard to race, color, national origin, or sex,” Cornell Law Professor and EPP co-founder William Jacobson told The Fix.
“In almost all of our cases that have concluded, the removal of discriminatory barriers was the result. We hope to achieve similar success in our pending cases,” he said.
Jacobson also told The Fix that EPP’s approach goes beyond addressing specific instances to shifting widespread attitudes. The group’s complaints are often paired with extensive media exposure, which allows it to explain to tens of millions of people the prevalence of DEI-related discrimination in education and why it is unjust.
Asked about his expectations for federal enforcement following these complaints, Jacobson said President Trump’s Office for Civil Rights has been “extremely active” in some areas, “and has opened for investigation several of our cases which had languished under the Biden administration.”
“From what I’ve observed, the desire to do better at fighting DEI discrimination clearly is present in the new OCR, and hopefully that desire will translate into more aggressive actions,” he said.
Another advocacy group, Defending Education, filed a similar complaint against Southern Illinois University in April for race and sex discrimination in “programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.”
The complaint lists “33 awards, funds, scholarships, fellowships, and internships that are only available to certain students based on race and/or sex.”
The national grassroots organization filed a second complaint against the University of Wisconsin-Madison, claiming that the university has doled out “financial benefits” to students on the basis of race.
“The University offers a scholarship between $1,000-$3,300 per academic year ‘to provide financial assistance to statutorily designated minority Wisconsin undergraduate students,’” the complaint states.
DE Vice President Sarah Perry told The Fix via email the group’s “research and reporting has yielded a treasure trove of continuing discriminatory practices in higher education, despite the Supreme Court’s recent insistence that eliminating race discrimination means eliminating all of it.”
The group has found that certain universities are habitual perpetrators of discriminatory practices while “others are newer to the race essentialism game.”
Perry said she expects the Trump administration will launch investigations into the schools named in DE’s complaints, a step the Department of Education has already shown eagerness to undertake.
“There’s a new sheriff in town for American educators, and as the Department’s investigations, stakeholder communications, and current lawsuit against the State of Maine have proven, the time is up for discriminatory practices in higher education,” she said.
The Department of Justice accused Maine of violating Title IX by allowing trans-identifying men to participate in women’s sports.
Finally, medical advocacy group Do No Harm filed a complaint against Duke University Health System in March, citing the school’s “numerous and blatant uses of race-based preferences in hiring, medical-school admissions, and other initiatives” despite the university’s receipt of federal funding.
“Racial preferences pervade DUHS’s student recruitment and admissions, resulting in a student body composed of individuals who reflect preferred skin colors, rather than individual merit,” Do No Harm’s complaint reads.
“We’re optimistic the current Administration will properly enforce and uphold the law. It’s simple: health systems must end unlawful race-based discrimination in totality. Any racial preference runs contrary to federal civil rights law,” the group told The Fix via email.
The Fix reached out to all the universities named in this story for comment via email in the last two weeks. None have replied yet.
The complaints come following President Trump’s Jan. 21 executive order titled, “Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.”
Further, the U.S. Department of Education launched Title VI investigations into 45 universities in March for reportedly using “race-exclusionary practices” in their graduate programs, The College Fix previously reported.
MORE: Asian American group alleges Yale still discriminating on basis of race
IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Meeting between legal professionals; freedomz/Canva Pro
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