U. Rhode Island Removes 31 Discriminatory Scholarships Pending Review After Equal Protection Project Complaint
“OCR will investigate whether the University discriminates on the basis of race, color, or national origin [and] on the basis of sex”
You might recall that in December of last year, the Equal Protection Project (EPP) filed a Civil Rights Complaint against the University of Rhode Island (URI) for 51 specific scholarships that discriminated on the basis of race, sex, or both: Fifty-One Discriminatory Scholarships At University of Rhode Island Challenged By Equal Protection Project:
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 University of Rhode Island over 51 scholarships that discriminated on the basis of race (23), race and sex (5), or sex (23).
From the Complaint:
We bring this civil rights complaint against the University of Rhode Island (“URI”) for offering, promoting and administering fifty-one (51) student scholarships that discriminate based on race and/or sex. The discrimination is so pervasive and systematic that urgent action by OCR is needed before the scholarships come up for reapplication in the spring 2025 semester…
The scholarships listed below were offered during the 2024-2025 academic year according to the URI website and violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations by illegally excluding students based on their race and skin color, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”) and its implementing regulations by excluding students based on their race, sex, or both. Because URI is a public university, these discriminatory scholarships also violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution…
We then explained the law in great detail, and concluded with a request for expedited action:
Indeed, URI appears to admit that there is a strong likelihood that several of its discriminatory scholarships are unlawful – because in its descriptions of such scholarships URI notes that “if such an award would not otherwise comply with applicable law, then the scholarship shall go to a student with demonstrated financial need and in good standing from a historically underrepresented population at the University.” This reflects both a consciousness of guilt on the part of URI and a callous disregard for federal anti-discrimination laws and URI’s constitutional obligations. This highlights the urgent need for OCR to conduct an investigation and put an end to this misconduct before the spring 2025 reapplication period begins.
The filing has gained substantial local and national media coverage. I appeared on the Matt Allen Show, a very popular Rhode Island-based talk show on which I have appeared many times, to talk about it, and how if the matter is not resolved by the time the Trump administration takes over, “we’re going to seek to make URI a test case for the Trump administration.”
Well, it turns out that even before President Trump could be inaugurated, the Biden Administration initiated an investigation into the unlawful goings on at URI: Thirty-Five Discriminatory U Rhode Island Scholarships Under Investigation by DoEd After Equal Protection Project Complaint:
On January 6, [2025] we received a Letter…from OCR notifying us that they had opened an investigation into 35 of the scholarships we challenged, constituting all 28 of the-race based scholarships plus 7 of the sex-based scholarships. The challenge to the other scholarships, all sex-based, were dismissed because OCR already had cases and investigations on the opened, and under OCR policy first-filed take precedence. This dismissal highlights that URI had known about its scholarship problems for a number of years.
From the OCR Letter:
* * * *
OCR will investigate whether the University discriminates on the basis of race, color, or national origin by administering the scholarships referenced in Allegations 1–28, in violation of 34 C.F.R. § 100.3(a) and (b). OCR will also investigate whether the University discriminates on the basis of sex by administering the scholarships referenced in Allegations 29–35, in violation of 34 C.F.R. § 106.37.
And now, URI has taken down 31 of the offending scholarships: Federal investigation continues: 31 scholarship apps in review:
The University of Rhode Island has removed the applications for 31 scholarships, primarily intended for women and students of color, while they remain under investigation by the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
“These scholarships have been removed from the portal while the university undertakes a review to confirm compliance with anti-discrimination laws,” Dawn Bergantino, assistant director of communications for URI, said in a statement to The Good Five Cent Cigar.
The scholarships under investigation were brought to the attention of the OCR after the Equal Protection Project, a project by non-profit advocacy organization Legal Insurrection Foundation, filed a civil rights complaint, according to the investigation notice.
“Our goal also in all of our cases is not to have the scholarships removed, not to deprive students of the opportunity, but to open up the opportunity to all students without regard to race, color, national origin or sex,” William Jacobson, founder of LIF, said.
Professor Jacobson emphasized that simply taking down offending scholarships is not enough:
“Our goal here is for [the university] to end the discrimination,” Jacobson said. “They have not indicated they’re doing that yet.”
If the scholarships return after the investigation, Jacobson said they need to do so with significant changes.
“We also think the school needs to apologize to the community for this,” Jacobson said. “These were a large number of scholarships of which a large number of students were deprived of the opportunity to apply based on race or sex. I think the school needs to come up with some sort of remedial plan for students.”
We here at EPP are counting this as an “IMPACT,” rather than a “WIN,” as it appears that most of the discriminatory scholarships challenged in EPP’s Civil Rights Complaint are currently not being offered, but whether that will be permanent or not is “to be determined.”
We will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that the discriminatory scholarships are not resurrected by URI.
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Comments
Great job, EPP. I’m disappointed in my alma mater for embracing the woke Liberal ideology that prevails in southern New England and elsewhere. They should have known better.
Call it winning the first game of the doubleheader.