“Latinx/Hispanic” Only Program At UC Berkeley Haas Business School Challenged By Equal Protection Project

“Latinx/Hispanic” Only Program At UC Berkeley Haas Business School Challenged By Equal Protection Project

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, ethnicity, or sex. In all we have filed over thirty complaints and legal actions since launch in February 2023, with over half the schools withdrawing or modifying the discriminatory programs. (See EPP Mid-2024 Impact Reports.)

Almost all of our actions have addressed discrimination in higher education. In our latest action, we have filed a Civil Rights Complaint (full embed at bottom of post) with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education, against the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business, regarding an MBA preparatory program open only to “Latinx/Hispanic” students.

From the Civil Rights Complaint:

We make this civil rights complaint against the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley (“Haas”), a public institution that offers, promotes, and administers a race- and national origin-based “MBA access program” called the Haas Thrive Fellows program, whose purpose, according to jts website, is “to educate, prepare, and motivate Latinx/Hispanic individuals to apply and succeed at a top business school, and support their career advancement” as part of “our commitment to increase the Latinx/Hispanic population within the graduate management community.”2 [image omitted]

Such statements clearly signal to non-Latinx/Hispanic students that they are not eligible and need not apply. Indeed, an August 2023 guidance issued by OCR provides that “[i]n determining whether an opportunity to participate is open to all students, OCR may consider, for example, whether advertisements or other communications would lead a reasonable student … to understand that all students are welcome to participate.”3 Here, any reasonable person would understand that all students are not welcome to participate in the Haas Thrive Fellows program.

Participants in the Haas Thrive Fellows program attend monthly meetings at which they receive, among other things, free GMAT or GRE preparation, information on graduate business admissions and financial aid, networking opportunities and “[c]ulturally relevant programming addressing the unique needs of Latinx/Hispanics in management and leadership in the US.”4 [image omitted]

These benefits, however, are only available to “Latinx/Hispanic individuals,”5 and advance UC Berkeley’s self-described “bold goal” of “transforming” itself within ten years into a “Hispanic Serving Institution,” or “HSI,” that “enroll[s] and educate[s] Latinx students through a culturally-enhancing approach that centers Latinx ways of knowing and being” in order to “reflect[ ] the demographics” of California and to be “a vehicle for social … equity.”6 [image omitted]

Further, UC Berkeley’s website contains an “Affirmations and Commitments” page on which it publicly avows that it is “prepar[ing] for a Latinx-thriving culture where policies, practices, and resource allocations are in alignment with our values and aspirations of becoming an HSI, anti-racist and pro-equity campus” and that it is “look[ing] forward to the day when the University of California, Berkeley, achieves HSI designation, gains the necessary resources to advance the well-being of all Latinx and Underrepresented Minority (URM) students, and promotes HSI themes beyond the pursuit of an enrollment threshold.”7

We then go on to explain the law and how such a program violates both Title VI and the 14th Amendment.

To the extent the Haas Thrive Fellows program is intended to achieve racial or ethnic balance – indeed, UC Berkeley’s website acknowledges that it strives to “achiev[e] representation aligned with the demographics of the population it serves”11 – such an objective has been “repeatedly condemned as illegitimate” and “patently unconstitutional” by the Supreme Court. Parents Involved in Cmty. Sch., 551 U.S. at 726, 730 (“Accepting racial balancing as a compelling state interest would justify the imposition of racial proportionality throughout American society, contrary to our repeated recognition that at the heart of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection lies the simple command that the Government must treat citizens as individuals, not as simply components of a racial, religious, sexual or national class”) (cleaned up, citation omitted)….

Accordingly, we respectfully ask that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights open a formal investigation, impose such remedial relief as the law permits for the benefit of those who have been illegally excluded from the Haas Thrive Fellows program based on discriminatory criteria, and ensure that all ongoing and future programming through Haas comports with the Constitution and federal civil rights laws.

Fox News digital [archive] covered the story:

Cornell Law professor William A. Jacobson founded the EPP to ensure fair treatment of all people without regard to race or ethnicity – and he feels Berkeley is being unfair to non-Hispanic students. The complaint, which has been obtained by Fox News Digital, details that the Haas Thrive Fellows program is to “educate, prepare, and motivate Latinx/Hispanic individuals” to apply and succeed at a top business school.

“The Haas Thrive Fellows program openly discriminates on the basis of race and national origin. Haas clearly tells students the program is intended for ‘Latinx/Hispanic’ students, setting up a barrier that would deter other students from applying. Regardless of the purpose of the discrimination, it is wrong and unlawful,” Jacobson told Fox News Digital.

“After the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admission, it is clear that discriminating on the basis of race to achieve diversity is not lawful,” he continued. “Haas knows better than to run a program that excludes and discriminates against students based on race and ethnicity.”

Berkeley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jacobson feels that the “harm from racial and ethnic educational barriers is that it racializes not just the specific program, but the entire campus.” He said that non-discrimination standards, which have been adopted by University of California institutions, should apply to the Haas School of Business.

“At every level, by policy the university rejects discrimination. UC-Berkeley and Haas should live up to their own set of rules. Sending a message to students that access to opportunities is dependent on race and ethnicity is damaging to the fabric of campus,” Jacobson said.

“Haas needs to come up with a remedial plan to compensate students shut out of this educational opportunity due to race or ethnicity,” Jacobson added. “The Equal Protection Project calls on the leadership of UC and UC-Berkeley to make sure nondiscrimination standards are upheld throughout the university system.”

The EPP’s guiding principle is that there is “no ‘good’ form of racism,” and that the “remedy for racism never is more racism,” according to its website.

“Colleges and universities need to adopt the approach of EqualProtect.org, which is that there is no ‘good’ form of racism, and the remedy for racism is not more racism,” Jacobson said.

Reminder: 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.

===================

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.