The University of Michigan Alumni Association changed course this week and said it will hold harmless currently enrolled students who received a scholarship designed to increase campus diversity.
Last week, the association told students who received its LEAD scholarship that the program was ending “to ensure it is complying with federal and state laws as well as recent guidance from the federal government.”
This week, students got word that their scholarships would be honored for all four years. The email acknowledged that last week’s cancellation announcement “caused stress and anxiety for you.”
“I’m pleased to share that there will be no adverse financial impact for the remaining time that you are enrolled at Michigan, as long as you remain in good academic standing,” Alumni Association President Ayanna McConnell wrote to scholars in an email.
Scholars were thrilled with the news, said Ana Trujillo Garcia, a 20-year-old junior from Lake Orion who is studying furniture and product design at U-M’s Stamps School of Art & Design.
“I was super excited. I was super happy,” she said. “It was upsetting that they weren’t going to honor it, so I’m super happy that they are honoring it.”
The scholarship name is an acronym for the four pillars of the program: leadership, excellence, achievement, and diversity.
It’s the diversity component that landed the scholarship program in trouble.
Former U-M Flint professor Mark Perry filed a complaint about the scholarship with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in March 2023.
“For the first 15 years of the program, it was restricted to Black, Native American and Hispanic students,” Perry said. “I looked into it and saw that it was clearly legally indefensible, a clearly racially discriminatory scholarship program. So I filed the complaint.”
Perry said his complaint is still pending but he said he thinks the Alumni Association had already made changes to the program to comply with Title VI of the Civil Right Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin.
“Using the web archive, I was able to determine that sometime in early 2024, they changed the eligibility from Black, Hispanic and Native American, to any student regardless of race, who was the first time in any college,” he said. “They were motivated to do that to help try to resolve their noncompliance with Title VI.”
With that modification, Perry said, he believes the scholarship does not discriminate and he expects the Office of Civil Rights to close his complaint.
He said he was fine with the scholarship being honored for the scholars who had already planned on it.
“I think there’s a moral obligation to continue with what the students originally expected so, so that just seems kind of like a no-brainer,” he said.
Contact John Wisely: jwisely@freepress.com. On X: @jwisely
