Conservative group files federal complaint against UConn over DEI scholarships
The Rhode Island-based Equal Protection Project complained to the federal education department's Office of Civil Rights that UConn illegally invoked race, ethnicity or gender in awarding several scholarships.
'That racially discriminatory scholarships exist at a major public university is disheartening. It is time for higher education everywhere to focus on the inherent worth and dignity of every student rather than categorizing students based on identity groups,' according to William A. Jacobson, founder of the campaign.
Numerous universities and colleges maintain 'minority-focused' scholarships, internship programs, summer residencies or other financial aid tools aimed at increasing enrollment by Black, Hispanic or other student groups.
Educators contend that affirmative action programs are important to overcoming a historical pattern in which minorities have been under-represented in higher education.
But the Equal Protection Project insists that race- or nationality-based financial awards are unconstitutional.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2023 ruled that two 'race conscious' admissions programs in higher education violated the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law.
This year, the nonprofit Equal Protection Project has sharply stepped up its campaign of anti-discrimination complaints. Since January it has gone to the Office of Civil Rights to contest scholarships at the University of Oregon, the University of Alabama, the University of Nebraska, Drake University, Bowdoin College, the University of South Carolina and about 15 others.
On Wednesday, the organization announced that it's challenging the legality of four UConn scholarship programs. UConn said late Wednesday that it had not yet gotten a copy of the complaint or been told which funds it involves.
'Generally speaking, UConn continually reviews its scholarship and financial aid criteria against current legal requirements and adjusts as needed to ensure compliance,' UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said. '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.'
In mid-February, the U.S. Department of Education issued a 'Dear Colleague' letter ordering educational institutions that get federal funding to stop using race preferences as a factor in deciding admissions, discipline, hiring, scholarships and more.
The Equal Protection complaint quotes UConn's mission statement: 'UConn has a strong commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ). We aim to support diversity, equity, and inclusion through offering support for success for people of all backgrounds.'
Jacobson's group argues that that's illegal when it blocks non-minority students from being eligible for aid or awards.
'We are asking UConn to live up to the law and its own rules, and remove the discriminatory eligibility barriers it has erected,' the organization said in a statement. 'Racial and ethnic discrimination are wrong and unlawful no matter which race or ethnicity is targeted or benefits. All applicants are entitled to equal treatment without regard to race, color, or national origin.'
In February, Jacobson told ProPublica that his organization opposes any discrimination, saying 'If there are programs that exclude Black students, we want the department to go after that, but I am not aware of such programs.'
At UConn, he contends that Bryan K. and Alice M. Pollard Scholarship rules are discriminatory. They say 'Applicants must have overcome obstacles such as socioeconomic or educational disadvantage, be members of underrepresented groups at the university, including students of color, or have experience living or working in diverse environments.'
The complaint alleges that the Sidney P. Marland Jr. Fund for Educational Leadership is also being run illegally because the criteria say 'The award provides scholarships for minority undergraduate and graduate students in educational leadership.'
He also is challenging a dietetics program diversity scholarship that states 'priority given to candidates of an ethnic or racial background which is underrepresented at UConn,' as well as the Philo T. Pritzkau Fund for graduate students in the Neag School of Education, where the rules say 'priority consideration will be given to African American, Hispanic American and Native American students.'
Long-time civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and the Southern Poverty Law Center condemned the Supreme Court's decision when it came out in 2023.
Voters the next year elected President Trump, who is working to dismantle DEI initiatives across the country. Soon afterward, the federal education department's civil rights office stopped or slowed its review of thousands of civil rights complaints, according to ProPublica. At the same time, it began an investigation into whether universities show bias against white students.
'Let me be clear: it is a new day in America, and under President Trump, OCR will not tolerate discrimination of any kind,' Craig Trainor, acting director of the office, told ProPublica.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights takes a different view.
'The American Dream is not equally available to all. In 2023, the Department of Education reported that it received the most civil rights complaints in its history, most of which allege race, sex, or disability discrimination,' according to the group.
'While the number of Black people with college degrees has increased over the last two decades, Black people remain relegated to lower wage jobs and less lucrative industries compared to white people with similar levels of education, and Black women experience some of the largest pay gaps,' it said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
18 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
California's third-largest home insurer seeks to hike rates
Mercury Insurance, the third largest home insurer in California, submitted a request for a new rate hike on Friday — the first filing to utilize new state reforms that alter how insurance companies can price for wildfire risk. The filing asks regulators to approve a statewide increase of 6.9%, according to the company. The full details of the filing were not available online as of Friday afternoon. In a statement, Mercury said the increase was necessary to compensate for the insurer's exposure to wildfire risk and inflation that drives up the cost of paying claims. Each homeowners' exact rate change will depend on their wildfires risk — some may see increases that are lower than the average, or even decreases; others' rates will rise above the average. The company said it would also be offering new discounts for wildfire mitigation work, such as installing ember-resistant vents or clearing out brush, which could reduce customers' wildfire portion of their premiums by as much as a third. Mercury is the first company to submit for a rate increase under the Sustainable Insurance Strategy, a package of reforms spearheaded by Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara aimed at making insurance more available in California. The reforms allow insurance companies to begin using forward-looking models of wildfire risk to influence premiums and to pass along some of the cost of reinsurance — insurance for insurers — to customers. These reforms were widely expected to lead to rate increases, but also come with a requirement for companies to write more policies in high wildfire-risk areas if they don't do so already. Last year, Mercury confirmed to the Chronicle that it would be among the companies that would be required to write more policies under the new regulations. In anticipation of the reforms being finalized, it announced plans to insure more than 200 homes in Paradise (Butte County), the site of the 2018 Camp Fire. Over the past few years, Los Angeles-based Mercury has scaled up its presence in California's home insurance line, rising from the seventh largest home insurer in 2021 to the third largest in 2024 behind State Farm General and Farmers Insurance Group. Over that same period, Mercury has raised home insurance rates four times — a 6.9% increase in 2021 followed by a 12.6% increase in 2023, a 7% increase in 2024 and another 12% increase that went into effect this March. It's common to see insurance companies request rate hikes of 6.9%. That's because under Proposition 103, the 1988 voter initiative that established California's system for reviewing rate hike requests, consumer groups can request a mandatory hearing for requests of 7% and above. Mercury CEO Gabriel Tirador said in a statement that he believed Lara's reforms would successfully stabilize California's home insurance market. 'Our filing is the first step toward Mercury's goal of expanding insurance options for California homeowners and underscores our 60-year commitment to California customers and agents,' Tirador wrote. 'As other companies scaled back their California operations, Mercury stepped up to provide more options for our agents and customers, and we are committed to continuing our efforts to help protect our California neighbors well into the future.' Its filing makes use of a wildfire catastrophe model made by Verisk, one of three such models recently approved for use by the department. The department will now review whether Mercury's usage of the model reliably supports its request for a 6.9% increase. It's the first of many new filings expected now that wildfire models have been approved for use. Not all companies will be required to write new policies under the regulations — some that already insure a significant number of homes in high-risk areas will only be asked to maintain that presence. But Farmers Insurance Group, California's second largest home insurer, has joined Mercury in writing more new policies to prepare for the reforms. Last year, Allstate Insurance, the eighth largest home insurer as of 2024, signaled it planned to begin writing new policies for the first time since late 2022 once it could begin raising rates under the reforms. It has not set a date for this to happen, however. Officials hope private insurers writing more policies will reverse the rapid growth of the California FAIR Plan, the state's insurer of last resort. 'Our goal is for consumers to have more options to find coverage on their own terms instead of FAIR Plan policies that cover less and cost more,' Deputy Insurance Commissioner Michael Soller said in a statement Friday. 'That will continue to be our top priority.'
Los Angeles Times
18 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Mogharebi Group Arranges $21-Million Sale of Covina Apartments
The Mogharebi Group, a Costa Mesa-based real estate services firm, advised RPK Development on the sale of Pacific Trails, an 84-unit apartment community in Covina, to a Los Angeles-based private investment firm for $21 million. RPK had owned the property since 2018 and sold it to diversify its holdings beyond California. Pacific Trails was built in 1977 and features a mix of one- and two-bedroom units housed in nine, two-story residential buildings on a 3.2-acre site. Amenities include vinyl plank flooring, upgraded cabinet fronts and modern kitchens, along with a pool, spa and fire pits. 'With more than two million residents and a rising share of cost-stressed households, the San Gabriel Valley continues to face urgent housing challenges,' said Mike Marcu, senior vice president at the Mogharebi Group. Information for this article was sourced from The Mogharebi Group.
New York Post
18 minutes ago
- New York Post
Want to fix the nation's broken higher-ed system? Look to the South
Universities in the American South are becoming models for fixing higher education. After the COVID lockdowns and amid antisemitic violence and the anti-American and DEI-infused agendas that have taken hold over the past two decades, Southern colleges are now displacing the broken universities in the Northeast that were once benchmarks for elite education. The number of Northeastern high-school students going to Southern colleges has nearly doubled in the last 20 years, thanks largely to lower costs and less-ideologically driven campus cultures. College-admissions experts note that the rise in these schools' popularity has allowed them to become more selective, boosting their prestige even further among high-school students. From 2014 to 2024, the last full year for available admissions data, Auburn University's freshman-class acceptance rate decreased from 85% to 46%; Clemson University's dropped from 52% to 38%. The trend line holds even for the South's most selective colleges: Rice University's acceptance rate dipped from 14% to 8%; Emory University's, from 26% to 15%. By contrast, elite Northeastern universities have only been able to maintain their enrollments by taking in more foreign students. Why are young people are flocking to Southern universities? Because, on the whole, they're run better. They take a pragmatic approach to education that's attractive to students who want to learn without the far-left craziness that prevails at so many schools. As an adjunct professor at the University of Kentucky, I'm immersed in a common-sense-oriented culture that's absent at elite Northeastern schools, one that lets administrators run the institution more sensibly based on what works best and not the optics of a vocal minority's radical ideology. This summer, the University of Kentucky swiftly fired a professor who launched an online petition calling for international warfare against Jews. About the same time, Columbia University was agreeing to a $221 million settlement with the Trump administration over its multi-year failures to police protesters who caused millions of dollars in damage and harassed peers in the name of far-left ideology pushed by their professors. The contrast could not be starker. Common-sense governance in higher education inspires leaders to be pragmatic and take action to keep students safe and the campus running normally. Pragmatism translates into rational decision-making and logical solutions across all areas of university life. The Universities of Florida and North Carolina systems, for example, have among the strongest track records of enforcing DEI bans and fortifying campus safety against wanton protesters. These policies transcend collegiate bureaucracies and change campus cultures for the better. At the University of North Carolina, students shut down their peers' anti-American protest by raising the American flag in front of them. At the University of Florida, Jewish students felt reassured after Oct. 7 because then-President Ben Sasse immediately issued a zero-tolerance statement for campus antisemitism. Southern universities' resolve to defy far-left craziness resonates with prospective college students because the results give young people positive visions of what they can experience on campus, achieve as students and accomplish after graduation. When learning devolves into activism, education loses its purpose as a tool for practical future success. Seminar discussions and quad gatherings simply won't translate into good jobs after graduation. Students fleeing the Northeast are reacting to that disconnect between college as a stagnant, unserious experience versus a real vehicle for future success. Southern universities are more disposed to traditional approaches to education, which prioritizes civics education and reinforces the campus as a place for cultivating intellectual and spiritual growth. Public institutions like the University of South Carolina and North Carolina State University have recently invested millions on civic-engagement curriculum. Texas, Florida and Tennessee have also allocated millions to beef up civics and classical education at their state universities. And Southern schools are more willing to welcome students of faith — a draw for some. The 2023 Christian revival at Asbury University in Kentucky was an expression of students' attraction to traditional education. The 16-day prayer celebration numbered 20,000 participants and inspired thousands more at Baylor, Texas A&M and Auburn to hold similar events that year. Students said their search for truth, connection and self-discovery in a society dominated by hyper-politicization motivated them to attend such events. Northeastern colleges thought pursuing radical change through social-justice activism would keep them on top — but that course has only precipitated their decline in reputation and relevance. They could learn much from the South. Zachary Marschall is editor-in-chief of Leadership Institute's Campus Reform and an adjunct assistant professor of arts administration at the University of Kentucky.
