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It’s Official – Dept. of Education Confirms MIT Ended Discrimination In Program After Challenge by Equal Protection Project

It’s Official – Dept. of Education Confirms MIT Ended Discrimination In Program After Challenge by Equal Protection Project

Office for Civil Rights of DoEd closes case as “resolved” after MIT removed race- and sex-based discriminatory eligibility restrictions for “the Creative Regal Women of Knowledge” program.

You might recall that in May of last year, the Equal Protection Project (EPP)(equalprotect.org) filed a Civil Rights Complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for an undergraduate program that discriminated on the basis of race and sex: MIT Program Open Only To “Women of Color” Challenged By Equal Protection Project As Violating Civil Rights Laws:

In our latest action…we have filed a Civil Rights Complaint…with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education, against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for creating, supporting and promoting a program for undergraduate students open only to women of color.

From the Complaint:

We bring this civil rights complaint against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for creating, supporting and promoting a program for undergraduate students – called the Creative Regal Women of Knowledge, or “The CRWN” – that engages in invidious discrimination on the basis of race, color and sex. As detailed and documented below, only undergraduate “women of color” can participate in the program. Applicants who fall outside of those race- and sex-based categories are ineligible for it.

Because The CRWN discriminates based on race and skin color, it violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations. And, because the program also discriminates on the basis of sex, it violates Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”) and its implementing regulations.

And what happened then was unprecedented, because EPP’s Complaint against MIT caused a literal firestorm of media activity, which forced MIT’s hand to open the offending program to students of all backgrounds: MIT Changes Website After Media Firestorm Over Equal Protection Project Complaint About Program Excluding White Females and All Men:

On May 20, 2024, I wrote about a Civil Rights Complaint filed by the Equal Protection Project challenged a program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology called the Creative Regal Women of Knowledge, or “The CRWN”, open only to “women of color”…

As noted in that post, the Complaint received enormous local, national, and international media coverage, including at:

The Boston Globe
The Boston Herald
Boston.com
WCVB-TV (Boston)
The Independent (UK)
The Daily Mail (UK)
National Review
The Washington Examiner

and many more.

The media attention got to MIT, because it quietly tried to cover its tracks by adding language to the CRWN home page purporting to show that the program actually was open to everyone. The CRWN home page as it existed on May 20 is here. (That’s why we always archive and screenshot before we file a complaint.)

After the Complaint media coverage, MIT added the following statement to the CRWN home page:

“While our program is designed to support and celebrate undergraduate women of Color, participation is open to all students regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, and national origin.”

So we here at EPP were quite pleased that MIT decided to open the CRWN program to students of all backgrounds, as we stated: “Is this change for real, or just to provide a defense if OCR opens an investigation? We understand the skepticism, but we’ll pocket whatever wins we can, and stay vigilant to monitor developments.”

Well, now, we are happy to report that on January 16, 2025, EPP received a letter from OCR indicating that it was closing this case as “resolved” due to MIT opening the program to those of all backgrounds:

OCR will close or dismiss an allegation if OCR obtains credible information indicating that the allegation is currently resolved. OCR confirmed that the URL provided in the complaint for the CRWN program states that “participation is open to all students regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, and national origin.” Based on this information, OCR has determined that the facts underlying the complaint are no longer present and OCR has no evidence that the law is violated. Accordingly, OCR is dismissing the complaint as of the date of this letter.

[emphasis added]

EPP had already counted this case as a “WIN” due to MIT opening this program to those of all backgrounds shortly after EPP’s challenge, but we are pleased that OCR has officially closed this case as “resolved.”

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Comments

Louis K. Bonham | January 17, 2025 at 10:20 pm

While I celebrate the LIF forcing MIT to nominally back down, let’s be realistic: this is just cosmetic face saving by MIT.

In reality, the program will still be open only to POC. Keep pushing!

Congratulations