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McDonald’s is settling a lawsuit over its HACER scholarship program and will eliminate the requirement that recipients have at least one Latino or Hispanic parent, the company said on Friday.
In a system message sent to franchisees, seen by Restaurant Business, the company said it disagreed with the claim that the program was discriminatory against non-Hispanic students. But it opted to settle the lawsuit and “evolve” the program to ensure that this year’s applicants will be able to receive awards.
More than 3,000 students have completed an application for such a scholarship.
“In discussions with franchisees, community leaders and organizations, educational leaders, past recipients of HACER, employees and more, we reached the conclusion that settling this lawsuit and evolving the program is the right thing to do for its recipients,” Santiago Negre, chairman of McDonald’s Hispanic Owner-Operators Association, and Michael Gonda, chief impact officer of North America for McDonald’s, said in the letter.
The criteria now require that applicants “must demonstrate their impact and contribution to the Hispanic/Latino community through their activities, leadership and service.”
A group opposed to affirmative action policies, the American Alliance for Equal Rights, sued McDonald’s earlier this month over the scholarship, arguing that they are discriminatory. The group brought the lawsuit in the aftermath of a Supreme Court’s ruling last year that declared affirmative action policies in college admissions to be unconstitutional.
Activists have used the ruling to take on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies at corporations and in other organizations in the aftermath.
McDonald’s earlier this month eliminated some of its DEI goals and said that it would stop requiring its suppliers to meet certain targets.
The company is intent on safeguarding its HACER program, which has awarded more than $33 million in scholarships to more than 17,000 students. Negre and Gonda called it “a deeply important program” that “has been instrumental in creating educational opportunities for Hispanic students pursuing higher education.”
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