Ten Discriminatory Scholarships at U. New Mexico Challenged by Equal Protection Project
We are hopeful that under the new administration the Office for Civil Rights will act with renewed vigor in upholding the core principle of equality.
The Equal Protection Project (EqualProtect.org) has filed over 60 Civil Rights Complaints covering hundreds of university scholarships and programs. The enormous impact our efforts have had contributed — we believe — to changing the culture surrounding DEI discrimination enabling the political change we are now seeing.
While the fate of the DoEd and it’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is uncertain, it appears that if anything anti-discrimination enforcement will continue, albeit potentially at the Department of Justice. So we have not slowed down at all. We are getting more tips than ever.
On February 26, 2025, EPP filed a Civil Rights Complaint with OCR against the University of New Mexico (“UNM”) arising from its race, ethnicity, and sex-based discrimination in connection with ten (10) scholarship programs UNM operates, administers and promotes.
From the Civil Rights Complaint:
We bring this civil rights complaint against the University of New Mexico (“UNM”) for race-based and sex-based discrimination in violation of Title VI and Title IX, respectively. Specifically, UNM offers, administers, and promotes ten (10) scholarships that discriminate based on race, sex, or both.
These scholarships are listed, promoted, and administered through the UNM Scholarship Office.2 [image omitted]
The scholarships listed below are currently offered to UNM students and applicants for admission, according to the UNM website, and violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations3 by illegally excluding students based on their race and skin color, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”) and its implementing regulations4 by excluding students based on their sex, or both. Because UNM is a public university, these discriminatory scholarships also violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Each of the scholarships listed below are for the 2025-2026 school year. There is no separate application for the below scholarships. So long as students complete the general application, are admitted to UNM, and meet the requirements, they are eligible for consideration.5
Here are three of the ten scholarships challenged:
We then explan in great detail why these and the other scholarships violate the law, and request that the case be opened for investigation:
Accordingly, we respectfully ask that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights prioritize and expedite this complaint given the ongoing application considerations and number of discriminatory scholarships at UNM reflecting a systematic disregard for Titles VI and IX, promptly open a formal investigation, impose such remedial relief as the law permits for the benefit of those who have been illegally excluded from UNM’s various scholarships based on discriminatory criteria, and ensure that all ongoing and future scholarships and programming at UNM comports with the Constitution and federal civil rights laws.
We are hopeful that under the new administration OCR will act with renewed vigor in upholding the core principle of equality.
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.
===========================
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Good. UNM claims they will obey all “relevant” laws. What that means in leftist speak, is they will obey all the laws they believe are relevant and anything coming out of the Trump administration is not included.
Thanks … from a New Mexico taxpayer who understands that federal law prohibits this kind of discrimination embodied in these scholarships. Ten times $15,000 or so should be put to scholarships available to ALL students – regardless of the country or continent from which their ancestors came to the USA.
The sad reality is that these sorts of discriminatory scholarships are commonplace b/c neither the folks funding them nor the University Systems see anything wrong with them. IMO, one way to dramatically improve all sorts of compliance and reduce shenanigans of all sorts is to make those officers with executive authority and members of the boards governing institutions; public, private, commercial, non profit alike, individually liable for failure to act when there is evidence of their knowledge.