BUZZ
A Hispanics-only program hosted at the University of Southern California and Loyola Marymount University has drawn a federal civil rights complaint.
The Equal Protection Project filed the complaint to the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights against the two private, Los Angeles-based universities for facilitating the Hispanic Scholarship Fund’s Youth Leadership Institute because it is “expressly limited to students who identify as being of Hispanic heritage.”
“USC and LMU participation in the YLI program violates Title VI by discriminating on the basis of national origin. Moreover, this participation violates California’s own discrimination statutes and the nondiscrimination policies,” states the complaint, lodged June 29.
While the institute is run by an outside nonprofit, USC and LMU support it by providing on-campus housing and other facilities, furnishing speakers and university personnel, and making classroom and meeting space available, according to the complaint.
“Accordingly, USC and LMU are legally liable for the discrimination that takes place on their campuses with their support,” the complaint alleges.
According to Los Angeles Magazine, the institute is “a free, college empowerment program for high-achieving Latino high school juniors.”
William Jacobson, president of the Equal Protection Project, told the New York Post that it’s “open discrimination, they don’t try to hide it.”
“The program says it’s only open to students who identify as Hispanic, only those students can participate in these events on campus and by definition, if those are the only students who can participate, those are the only ones who can receive the benefit of temporary housing.”
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