San Diego race-based scholarship fund rebrands after legal challenge – Campus Reform
Californians for Equal Rights successfully concluded a civil rights lawsuit against the University of California San Diego and a partner organization. On Oct. 20, the Pacific Legal Foundation, representing the plaintiff, announced its lawsuit resulted in a UCSD partner, the San Diego Foundation, renaming the Black Alumni Scholarship Fund and removing racial restrictions for applicants.
“The ultimate result vindicates our clients’ rights to equal protection of the law,” said Jack Brown, a PLF attorney on the case, in a statement to Campus Reform.
The suit, previously covered by Campus Reform, alleged that the university colluded with the San Diego Foundation to ensure only black students were deemed eligible for the scholarship in violation of California Proposition 209 and the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act.
According to a PLF press release detailing the initial complaint, the university established the Black Alumni Scholarship Fund in 1983 and outsourced the fund to the San Diego Foundation following the passage of Proposition 209 in 1996. But the two organizations retained suspicious ties for the ensuing years.
“Significant staff crossover between the university and the San Diego Foundation, claims by the scholarship fund that the university was supporting it, and the fact that we alleged that the university gave the scholarship fund the names of admitted students who disclosed that they were black on their college applications … all of those factors supported a claim that the university and the San Diego Foundation were violating Section 1985,” Brown said.
Following the filing of the July 16 lawsuit, the defendants immediately capitulated.
“The San Diego Foundation very quickly changed the name of the scholarship fund and eliminated the race-based criteria. The university, for its part, insists that it had nothing to do with the changes,” Brown said.
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The plaintiffs celebrated the conclusion.
“The replacement of the Black Alumni Scholarship Fund with a new merit-based scholarship is a great win for equal justice. It signals the effectiveness of using the court of law to fight against racial discrimination,” said Wenyuan Wu, CFER executive director, in a statement to Campus Reform. She further commended CFER member Kai Peters, a UCSD student and the only other plaintiff named in the suit, for his courage in taking a stand for the principle of equality.
Campus Reform has contacted the University of California San Diego, the San Diego Foundation, and Kai Peters for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
Lewis Thune is a student at Hillsdale College currently pursuing Bachelor of Arts in Politics with a minor in Religion. He is a board member and starting forward for the Hillsdale College Rugby Football Club and writes for the Hillsdale Collegian. In high school, Lewis was a three-sport athlete and served as captain for his school’s mock trial and speech teams, winning the WoodmenLife American History Award as a junior and earning all-s…
