Tuition Waivers Open Only To Non-Whites at U. North Dakota and Its Law School Challenged by Equal Protection Project
“This is much worse than what Harvard and USC were accused of doing” by taking race into consideration, as rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. “Here, you have absolute barriers based on race and ethnicity.”
The Equal Protection Project (EPP) (EqualProtect.org) of the Legal Insurrection Foundation has challenged numerous racially discriminatory programs done in the name of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This discrimination comes in various ways, but the overarching theme is to exclude or diminish some people and promote others, based on race, color, or ethnicity.
As previously reported, EPP challened is a tuition waiver program at Bismarck State College in North Dakota, which is open only to non-whites, by filing a civil rights complaint with the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education.
EPP has now filed civil rights complaints against the University of North Dakota and the University of North Dakota Law School for similar discriminatory tuition waiver programs.
The Daily Caller reported:
Two North Dakota higher education institutions were hit this week with civil rights complaints over tuition reduction programs open only to specific racial groups.
The Equal Protection Project (EPP) filed civil rights complaints against the University of North Dakota (UND) and UND School of Law for tuition reduction programs that are “only available to non-white applicants,” according to complaints obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. UND’s website cites the authority of North Dakota State Board of Higher Education (SBHE) policy that encourages institutions to use tuition waivers to “promote enrollment of a culturally diverse student body.”
“These institutions of higher education in North Dakota seem to have taken it upon themselves to institute discrimination, which is not required and is in our view unlawful,” EPP founder William A. Jacobson told the DCNF.
UND’s Cultural Diversity Scholarship (CDS) program is open to students from underrepresented populations, which the university defines as “African American/Black, American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Latino/a/x, Hispanic American or Multiracial,” according to an Oct. 30 archive of the website. The UND School of Law offers a similar “Cultural Diversity Tuition Waiver” waiver program.
UND’s website now states that it is “currently reviewing awarding requirements for Fall 2024.”
“It’s particularly shocking to us that the University of North Dakota School of Law would do this,” he said. “Because if anybody should know better, it’s a law school.”
The complaints allege that the programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
North Dakota University System (NDUS) Director of Communications and Media Billie Jo Lorius told the DCNF that each institution in the system “develops and administers its tuition and fee waiver programs to meet their needs using locally approved procedures.”
SBHE policy allows institutions to offer waivers and states that, “Institutions are encouraged to use this authority to promote enrollment of a culturally diverse student body, including members of Indian tribes and economically disadvantaged students, for the benefit of all students and the academic community, to promote enrollment of graduate students and research, and for other purposes consistent with an institution’s mission,” according to the policy manual….
“This is much worse than what Harvard and USC were accused of doing,” he said, noting the Court found taking race into consideration unlawful. “Here, you have absolute barriers based on race and ethnicity.”
“We also believe it’s extremely important that [UND] remedy this situation, not just by stopping future conduct, but by compensating students who missed out on these opportunities because of their race or ethnicity,” Jacobson said.
UND Communications Director David Dodds told the DCNF that UND and UND School of Law have not yet received any notice of a complaint from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
“If we do receive anything from the OCR, UND will respond accordingly and in full compliance with the law,” he said.
Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum did not respond to a request for comment.
You can read the full complaints below:
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Comments
Seems like a slam dunk case, so long as you find a suitable plaintiff or three who applied for this and was turned down.
The Republican Governor is a RINO and there is a huge Muslim population in North Dakota now
Tens of thousands brought to you by our broken immigration
Really who knew
Wasn’t UND sued for another “no whites allowed” program last spring? IIRC, it was a summer school program, and they removed the discriminatory requirement _after_ all openings had been filled. I expect they’ll do that again, and keep on doing it until a court issues an injunction requiring all UND administrators to follow the law, and jails someone for contempt of court.