The University of Connecticut (UConn) is facing a civil rights complaint due to facilitating multiple race-based scholarships..
The Equal Protection Project, an advocacy group that has targeted various universities in recent months over race-based scholarship awards, announced on Thursday that it had filed a civil rights complaint against UConn.
The group filed the complaint with the U.S Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
The document highlights four specific scholarships that are awarded based on racial preferences—the Bryan K. and Alice M. Pollard Scholarship, the Dietetics Program Diversity Scholarship, the Philo T. Pritzkau Fund, and the Sidney P. Marland Jr. Fund for Educational Leadership.
As of publication, these scholarships’ application windows for the 2025-2026 academic year are not yet open.
The Philo T. Pritzkau Fund description explains that “Priority consideration will be given to African American, Hispanic American and Native American students.”
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”UConn should know better than to run scholarships that treat students differently based on race, color, or national origin,” Equal Protection Project Founder William A. Jacobson told Campus Reform. “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?”
”[W]e have challenged over 100 colleges and universities for over 400 discriminatory scholarships and programs,” he continued. “In no case are we aware of a school claiming it was free to discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin, so why does it keep happening?”
”Unfortunately there is a culture on many campuses that excuses some forms of racial discrimination, and that needs to stop,” Jacobson concluded.
The Dietetics Program Diversity Scholarship, which is available to students at the College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources, appears to have been scrubbed from the college’s website.
Yet, the Equal Protection Project includes archived links for each scholarship. The Diversity scholarship is present on the archived link but not the current version of the web page as of publication date.
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”Priority consideration will be given to candidates of an ethnic or racial background which is underrepresented at the University,” reads the now-removed description of the scholarship.
UConn spokesperson Stephanie Reitz explained to Campus Reform that the university “continually reviews its scholarship and financial aid criteria against current legal requirements and adjusts as needed to ensure compliance.”
”Some such scholarship funds are currently paused following the recent Dear Colleague letter and other related federal guidance, and UConn is working with donors and departments to make any necessary revisions,” she continued.
The “Dear Colleague letter” references a Department of Education notification to colleges and universities on Feb. 14 warning of potential consequences for not complying with federal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) elimination directives.
Brendan McDonald is a student at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire. He has interests in writing and communication and is also a reporter at NewBostonPost.
