The Michigan Daily
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The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights announced in a press release Wednesday an investigation into five U.S. universities, including the University of Michigan, for potential violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VI prohibits exclusionary federal funding administered on the basis of race, national origin and color. The press release claimed the University’s Dreamer Scholarship, administered through the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, violates the act because it aims to fund recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an immigration policy protecting undocumented adults who were brought to the United States as children for work and education.
The investigation follows complaints submitted to the OCR by the Equal Protection Project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation, which claims the Dreamer Scholarship and other similar scholarships nationwide are a form of discrimination against students born in the U.S. In the statement, William A. Jacobson, founder of the Equal Protection Project, wrote he appreciated the OCR for launching the investigation.
“Protecting equal access to education includes protecting the rights of American-born students,” Jacobson wrote. “At the Equal Protection Project, we are gratified that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is acting on our complaints regarding scholarships that excluded American-born students.”
Craig Trainor, DOE acting assistant secretary for civil rights and principal deputy assistant secretary for civil rights, wrote in the press release the investigation fulfills a promise made by President Donald Trump to natural-born citizens upon taking office.
“On January 21, 2025, President Trump promised that ‘every single day of the Trump Administration, [he] will, very simply, put America first,’” Trainor wrote. “Neither the Trump Administration’s America first policies nor the Civil Right Act of 1964’s prohibition on national origin discrimination permit universities to deny our fellow citizens the opportunity to compete for scholarships because they were born in the United States.”
In an email to The Michigan Daily, University spokesperson Kay Jarvis wrote the University has no comment on the matter.
“The university has received a letter of notification relating to this matter,” Jarvis wrote. “We have no further comment.”
The Michigan Daily News Staff can be reached at news@michigandaily.com.
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