‘[D]iscrimination in scholarships at URI is shocking in its breadth,’ Equal Protection Project founder said
The Equal Protection Project filed a federal civil rights complaint against the University of Rhode Island, alleging that 51 of the school’s scholarships illegally discriminate on the basis of sex and race.
The Rhode Island-based free speech investigative organization filed the complaint with the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights Wednesday.
“The discrimination is so pervasive and systematic that urgent action by [the Office of Civil Rights] is needed before the scholarships come up for reapplication in the spring 2025 semester,” the complaint reads.
It lists several of the discriminatory programs that “violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964…by illegally excluding students based on their race and skin color” and “Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972…by excluding students based on their race, sex, or both.”
The Bank of America Scholarship, for example, offers “two four-year scholarships for minority students, preferably one male and one female.”
Similarly, the Alumni of Color Network Scholars Fund “support(s) a student of color (deriving from either a racial and/or ethnic minority group).”
Further, several of the scholarships are given exclusively or “preferably” to African American or female students.
”The discrimination in scholarships at URI is shocking in its breadth, far exceeding any other university we have seen at the Equal Protection Project,” William Jacobson, founder of the Equal Protection Project, told The College Fix.
“URI does not even try to hide the discriminatory barriers, they are all detailed on the URI website,” he said.
Jacobson also said:
After the Supreme Court’s decision in Students For Fair Admission, it is clear that discriminating on the basis of race to achieve diversity is not lawful, and violates, among other things, students’ 14th Amendment right to equal protection of the laws. As Chief Justice Roberts wrote in the majority opinion, “[e]liminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.”
URI should know better than to offer, promote, and administrate scholarships that exclude students based on race, color, or sex. Where were the administrators and staff whose jobs supposedly are devoted to preventing discrimination? Why was there no intervention to uphold the legally required equal access to education?
The harm from race and sex educational barriers is that it damages the entire campus. Sending a message to students that access to opportunities is dependent on race or sex is damaging to the fabric of campus. Universities need to adopt the approach of EqualProtect.org, which is that there is no ‘good’ form of racism, and the remedy for racism is not more racism.
He told The Fix that the organization is calling on current leadership and the incoming Trump administration “to prioritize the investigation of URI in light of the systematic discrimination taking place.”
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