Five Discriminatory Scholarships at Loyola Marymount U. Challenged by Equal Protection Project
“Ending the discrimination, however, is not sufficient. There needs to be accountability. First and foremost, Loyola Marymount should apologize to the community.”
The Equal Protection Project was launched in February 2023 to challenge DEI discrimination in education. In just over two years, we have had a tremendous impact. Our media presence has been staggering, reaching tens of millions of people.
We recently registered another milestone – we filed a legal challenge to the 100th school, covering over 400 programs and scholarships:
Included in that list of 100 was a Civil Rights Complaint filed May 6, 2025, against Loyola Marymount University (LMU) regarding five (5) discriminatory scholarships:
We bring this civil rights complaint against Loyola Marymount University (“LMU”), a private university, for discrimination in five (5) scholarships and programs based on race, color, national origin, or sex, in violation of Title VI and Title IX, respectively.
LMU’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office oversees numerous initiatives and programs that aim to “cultivate an anti-racist institutional climate that supports inclusive excellence and fights systemic oppression.2” This mission has resulted in discriminatory practices on campus, as set forth below. [image omitted]
The scholarships and programs listed below are currently active and being administered to LMU students, according to the LMU website, and violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations3 by excluding students based on their race, color, or national origin, while other scholarships violate Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”) and its implementing regulations4 by excluding students based on their sex:
I. SCHOLARSHIPS AND PROGRAMS THAT VIOLATE TITLE VI (3)
1. African American Scholarship
Link: https://www.lls.edu/alumni/makeagift/areasofsupport/
Archived Link: https://archive.is/wip/XI14X
Type: Law School Scholarship
Discriminatory Requirement: “The African American Scholarship provides critical financial support to an incoming or current African American student who might not otherwise be able to afford a Loyola education.”52. Latino Scholarship
Link: https://www.lls.edu/alumni/makeagift/areasofsupport/
Archived Link: https://archive.ph/XI14X
Type: Law School Scholarship
Discriminatory Requirement: “By supporting the Latino Scholarship, you are directly supporting an emerging Latina/o leader who shows incredible promise through community involvement, academic excellence, and/or campus engagement.”3. Academic Community of Excellence
Link: https://academics.lmu.edu/ace/
Archived Link: https://archive.ph/wip/O9AuO
Type: Undergraduate Program
Discriminatory Requirement: “The Academic Community of Excellence prepares underrepresented students (as defined by the U.S. Department of Education) and other students of color to pursue graduate and professional school. The program’s goal is to increase the representation of students of color in advanced degree programs and diversify our nation’s professional sectors.”II. SCHOLARSHIPS THAT VIOLATE TITLE IX (1)
4. Alliance of Women Philanthropists (AWP) Scholarship
Link:
https://giving.lmu.edu/communities/awp/scholarships/#:~:text=AWP%20offers%20scholarships%20for%20financial,enrolled%20at%20Loyola%20Marymount%20University.&text=Based%20on%20high%20financial%20need,Preference%20for%20female%20recipient.
Archived Link: https://archive.ph/wip/iDmtH
Type: Undergraduate, Graduate, and Law School Scholarship
Discriminatory Requirement: “Preference for female recipient”III. SCHOLARSHIPS THAT VIOLATE BOTH TITLE VI AND IX (1)
5. Argelia Atilano Scholarship
Link: https://lmu.academicworks.com/opportunities/23091
Archived Link: https://archive.is/wip/7EPaf
Type: Undergraduate Scholarship
Discriminatory Requirement: “Preference for female, Latina students who are first generation students to attend college.”
As we do in all our complaints against private universities, we then explained the law, why the scholarships violate the Civil Rights Act, and requested that OCR open a formal investigation.
The California Globe covered the case:
It looks like quota mongers were out in full force at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles in violation of federal and California law.
The school was just hit with a federal civil rights complaint filed by the Equal Protection Project, a civil rights organization, for a slew of scholarship programs that casually exclude people based on race and gender. The complaint about this brazen discrimination was filed last week with the Office for Civil Rights of the United States Department of Education.
It says the programs that exclude based on race violate Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the gender exclusive programs violate the Title lX law that prohibits discrimination in educational programs based on gender.
Equal Protection Project founder William Jacobson told the California Globe that the discriminatory scholarships at Loyola Marymount University are fairly typical for academia these days.
“EPP has filed legal challenges to almost 100 colleges and universities since launch in February 2023, covering over 300 discriminatory programs and scholarships.We have become widely recognized as the leading civil rights group fighting DEI discrimination in higher education, “ he emailed. “We only file cases where we believe there is clear evidence of unlawful discrimination. In each of our cases we are surprised at the brazen disregard for the civil rights laws and the school’s own nondiscrimination rules, and Loyola Marymount is no exception. There is a culture throughout higher education that past discrimination justifies present discrimination, but that is contrary to law….
It seems that the school’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion office is behind the program. The complaint says that LMU’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office “oversees numerous initiatives and programs that” in its words are designed to “cultivate an anti-racist institutional climate that supports inclusive excellence and fights systemic oppression.”
The end result is that this “mission has resulted in discriminatory practices on campus.” …
William Jacobson of the Equal Protection Project said Loyola Marymount University should apologize for its rank discrimination and that he hopes the Education Department is going to take action against the school.
“In all of our cases the primary goal is to remove discriminatory barriers and to open the program or scholarship to all students without regard to race, color, national origin, or sex. In almost all of our cases that have reached a conclusion, the removal of discriminatory barriers was the result. Our high success rate reflects that our Civil Rights Complaints are extremely detailed and present clear evidence and law supporting our position” he explained. “We hope to achieve similar success with Loyola Marymount.”
“Ending the discrimination, however, is not sufficient. There needs to be accountability. First and foremost, Loyola Marymount should apologize to the community. Second, the Office for Civil Rights needs to impose remedies — financial or otherwise — that make sure the misconduct does not repeat itself. Otherwise, we are just playing whack-a-mole with discriminatory programs and scholarships.”
Loyola Marymount spokesperson Griff McNerney declined comment.
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.
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Comments
The Equal Protection Project is doing great work.
But as long as the only real ‘penalty’ for these insane discriminations is them being told to stop doing it, they will continue popping up forever.
There needs to be real, severe consequences for the blatant racism and discrimination these colleges are engaging in.