Create a free Diverse: Issues In Higher Education account to continue reading
The nonprofit Legal Insurrection Foundation announced it has filed a legal complaint with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights against North Central University in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The federal civil rights complaint — pursuant to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights discrimination complaint resolution procedures — objects to the university creating, supporting, and promoting the eligibility criterion for the George Floyd Memorial Scholarship, a four-year, full-tuition scholarship.
The foundation’s Equal Protection Project has challenged several diversity, equity, and inclusion programs it deemed racially discriminatory since its February 2023 launch, according to the foundation’s website, where its stated mission is advancing free expression and academic freedom on campuses.
The March 25 complaint seeks “to ensure equal protection under the law and non-discrimination by the government, and that opposes racial discrimination in any form.” It notes that the George Floyd Memorial Scholarship, created on June 4, 2020, requires applicants be an undergraduate student who is “Black or African American, that is, a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.”
The complaint requests an OCR investigation of North Central University’s role in participating in, sponsoring, supporting, and promoting the scholarship to determine whether the institution is engaged in discrimination and, if so, how it should be held to account.