(Original Post, updated at bottom)
On Sunday night, May 21, 2023, I wrote about the Civil Rights Complaint filed by the Equal Protection Project of Legal Insurrection Foundation regarding a summer researh internship program at the University of Minnesota that excluded white students, Non-Whites Only U. Minnesota Summer Research Program Challenged By Equal Protection Project.
As mentioned in the post, the story was picked up by Fox News digital and was one of the top trending stories all day, now with almost 9000 comments.
This morning I appeared on Fox and Friends to talk about U. Minnesota’s misconduct:
(partial transcript, auto-generated, may contain transcription errors)
Steve Doocy (00:46): Bill, let’s start with you. This sounds like flat out discrimination.WAJ (00:51): Well, it is. It’s open. They’re not hiding it. They limit who can apply to this summer program based on skin color. That’s illegal. It’s immoral. It stands against the progress we thought we’ve made in this country. And it’s counterproductive because it just reinforces stereotypes. It reinforces negative feelings. It is not what the University of Minnesota says it stands for. It should stop.Doocy (01:19): They should, it’s flat out discrimination. But you say when the discrimination is against white students by the university itself, you write, it is met with the shrug of the shoulders and ignored, Bill.WAJ (01:31): That’s right. If you were to reverse the roles here, and if the University of Minnesota were to have a scholarship, summer program open only to whites, we all would condemn that, it would be universally condemned. So why is it not condemned this way? Why did they feel that they are free to do something like this? To have a program that only excludes whites?What we need in this country is equal protection. It’s equal treatment of everybody without regard to race. That’s the answer. The answer to past racism or even current racism is never more racism.* * *Doocy (03:29): Well, as it turns out, I understand, the people who are awarded this particular program get paid, I think $6,000 for the summer, Bill. We’re almost to the summer, [Memorial] Day’s at the end of this week. Is there any chance they’re gonna turn this around?WAJ (03:47): Well, that’s up to the University of Minnesota. Whether they want to do the right thing or not, the burden’s on them to make this right and to undo the damage that they’ve done. How can they say they stand for inclusiveness when they’re excluding? You can’t be inclusive by excluding.
The story also has been picked up by over a dozen outlets, including the NY Post which ran a featured news story, University of Minnesota ‘evaluating’ program that bans white students after discrimination complaint:
The University of Minnesota is re-evaluating its controversial summer internship program that excludes white students, the school said Monday — after an Ivy League professor filed a discrimination complaint….“There is an increasing trend where people think it’s OK to discriminate on the basis of race as long as the discrimination is against whites or Asians or others, and we don’t accept that,” Jacobson, 64, told The Post.The prof said the publicly funded University of Minnesota has no legal right to implement “regressive” policies that he says are “undoing civil-rights progress” and taking the US “back to the 1940s and 1950s.”A university rep said in a statement to The Post on Monday that it “regularly revisits the selection criteria across thousands of different grants, scholarships and other financial awards provided to our students each year” and would be “evaluating the criteria for this student support program as part of this routine process and make any appropriate updates” in light of the administrative complaint.While the EPP is seeking a “remedy” and not damages from the university, Jacobson said he would be willing to file a lawsuit on behalf of a student who could not get into the program because of their race or ethnicity.He noted there were other ways to attract students of color to the Office of Undergraduate Studies program, such as expanding the pool of applicants or doing community outreach to make minorities more aware of the opportunity.“What you can’t do is set up categorical racial barriers to participation, which is what they’ve done,” he explained.Jacobson also accused the university of playing “word games” after it denied to The Post that the internship was paid. He said a $6,000 stipend is a clear form of payment.
The NY Post, which also covered EPP’s challenge to a discriminatory fellowship program at the Albany (NY) Public Library, highlighted the work EPP has been doing battling the widespread problem of DEI discrimination:
Since its recent inception, the EPP has taken legal action to halt a student loan forgiveness program for non-white teachers in Providence, RI, shut down a Missouri state business boot camp that excluded white males and stopped an Albany, NY, library internship that was only for blacks, Jacobson said.“It’s frightening how pervasive this DEI [Diversity, Equity & Inclusion] discrimination is in society — it’s in almost every institution in varying degrees,” the self-described “conservative” said, while chiding district attorneys and politicians who remain mum on the issue.“If this was a program that restricted participation to whites, there would be an absolute uproar, and we would be part of that uproar.”
The story continues to grow. I’ll be on Greg Kelly’s show on Newxmax tonight in the 10 O’clock hour, and have several Minnesota radio appearances in the next two days. U. Minnesota needs to understand that this is not going away until they do the right thing and make amends.
We are a small organization going up against powerful and wealthy government and private institutions devoted to DEI discrimination. Donations are greatly needed and appreciated.
(10:30 p.m. Eastern, 5-22-2023)
The Daily Mail, which is covering the story late tonight (Eastern time) after this post went live, reports:
According to a previous listing on the University of Minnesota’s website, the Multicultural Summer Research Opportunities Program is ‘an intensive 10-week summer program in which undergraduate students of color work full-time with a faculty mentor on a research project.’
The application for the program requires students to fill out demographic information.
After attention was drawn to the program, it appears the university has removed the eligibility requirement that a candidate must be Native American or a person of color. Now, the requirements only say participants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
We have confirmed that since Sunday night, when the story went viral, U. Minnesota has changed the name of the program and no longer describes it as a “Multicultural” program for “students of color”:
Before
After
The Eligibility Requirements no longer require that a person identify as a student of color or Native American.
Before
After
The entire landing page of for the MSROP program has been revised.
Before
The Application Process subsection in the dropdown menu, however, still requires that demographic information be provided. It’s unclear if that means the discrimination will continue under cover, or someone just failed to update that section.
Clearly, U. Minnesota has retreated from its open promotion of a racist program. We await formal confirmation that U. Minnesota has changed not only the website. This change that doesn’t end the problem, because there are students who have been denied an educational opportunity by the university on the basis of skin color. Will U. Minnesota reopen the application process? Will it add opportunities for those students who lost out? There is more to be done beyond dropping the racist advertising and program requirements.
We will continue to pursue this matter, but for now, we’ll take the victory for equality and equal protection.
[The headlines to this story were changed after the Update]
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