So far in 2025, our Equal Protection Project (EqualProtect.org) has filed 20 cases covering over 40 colleges and universities and over 100 programs or scholarships with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education. Our most recent case was filed on May 8, 2025, against the Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU).
Since its launch in February 2023, EPP has filed complaints against almost 100 colleges and universities, challenging over 300 discriminatory programs and scholarships. As before, the media coverage of our cases is staggering, we reach many millions of people. This year is turning out to be even better than our incredible 2024 year (see LIF’s 2024 Annual Report).
From the Civil Rights Complaint against MTSU:
We bring this civil rights complaint against Middle Tennessee State University (“MTSU”), a public institution, for offering, administering, and promoting seventeen (17) scholarships that discriminate based on race, color, and/or national origin.
MTSU offers hundreds of scholarships for students.2 To apply, students must log in using their MTSU username and complete the “General Scholarship Application.” Based on their responses, they are then matched with and directed to additional scholarships for which they may be eligible. Individual scholarship applications are not required. [image omitted]
The scholarships listed below are currently offered to MTSU students and applicants for admission, according to the MTSU website, and violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations3 by discriminating against students based on their race, color, and/or national origin. Because MTSU 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 is available for the 2025-2026 school year with the application open from October 1, 2024 to February 15, 2025.4
As always, we details with links, archived links, and screenshots, each of the scholarships being challenged. Here are examples from the Complaint:
1. Al Wilkerson Endowed Scholarship5
Discriminatory Requirement: “Preference shall be given to African American students.”64. Edith Ann Clark Moore Endowed Scholarship
Discriminatory Requirement: “Preference will also be afforded to students who are underrepresented minorities.”9. Karla Winfrey Broadcast Journalism Scholarship
Discriminatory Requirement: “Recipient must be an African-American…”11. Molly Jones Estate
Discriminatory Requirement: “Recipient shall be a minority student.”17. Willie Brown Scholarship
Discriminatory Requirement: “The recipient shall be a minority student incoming freshman.”
The term “minority” clearly is a racial classification, as we explained in a footnote:
8 MTSU uses the term “minority” to distinguish individuals based on race or ethnicity. See https://www.mtsu.edu/policies/p631/ [https://web.archive.org/web/20250508020404/https://www.mtsu.edu/policies/p631/] (accessed May 7, 2025). Additionally, the Tennessee legislature defines a “minority” as an individual who is non-white. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 12-3-1102 (2024). Moreover, courts often understand the term “minority” to mean non-white racial and ethnic groups. See Boston Chapter, NAACP, Inc. v. Beecher, 295 F. Supp. 3d 26, 28 (D. Mass. 2018); see also Kirkland v. N.Y. State Dep’t of Corr. Servs., 552 F. Supp. 667, 674, 677 (S.D.N.Y. 1982); Arbor Hill Concerned Citizens Neighborhood Ass’n v. Cnty. of Albany, 281 F. Supp. 2d 436, 455 (N.D.N.Y. 2003); Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary v. Regents of Univ. of Mich., 701 F.3d 466, 493 (6th Cir. 2012).
The case has received substantial media coverage, including an article in The Tennessean, via the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal (syndicated on Yahoo News), which quoted me extensively from our press release about the case:
“Regardless of where one stands on DEI, violation of the Civil Rights Act is unlawful. It is time for higher education everywhere to focus on treating each student as an individual, rather than categorizing students based on identity groups.” ….
“It is shocking that in a state like Tennessee, which has passed legislation seeking to avoid discrimination done in the name of DEI, that openly discriminatory scholarships are offered at a major state university,” …. “MTSU has strong non-discrimination policies. MTSU should live up to its own rules, and remove the discriminatory eligibility barriers it has erected.
“At EPP our guiding principle is that the remedy for racism never is more racism. To the extent MTSU seeks greater diversity, there are many lawful means of achieving that goal, but discrimination is not one of them.” ….
“The Equal Protection Project calls on the senior administration of MTSU to make sure nondiscrimination standards are upheld throughout the institution,” the release said.
“At EPP we have filed almost 100 cases challenging over 300 discriminatory scholarships and programs. In no case are we aware of a school claiming it was free to discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin, so why does it keep happening?
“Unfortunately there is a culture on many campuses that excuses some forms of racial discrimination, and that needs to stop.”
William A. Jacobson, a professor at Cornell Law School and the founder of the Equal Protection Project, said the scholarships admit to discriminating on the basis of race, according to MTSU’s website.
“At EPP, our guiding principle is that the remedy for racism never is more racism,” Jacobson said. “To the extent MTSU seeks greater diversity, there are many lawful means of achieving that goal, but discrimination is not one of them.”
Christy Sigler, assistant to the president for Institutional Equity and Compliance at MTSU, disagrees.
“Ever since the [Supreme Court’s] Students for Fair Admissions directive, the university does not, to my knowledge, discriminate against white students,” Sigler said.
The complaint is one of hundreds that Jacobson’s organization has sent since launching in 2023.
As for outcomes, Jacobson was hopeful because the Trump administration is enforcing Title VI more strictly than Biden. But an outcome is not guaranteed, even though Tennessee is a red state.
“This is handled by the U.S. Department of Education, not in the local court system or administrative system,” Jacobson said. “So to us, it doesn’t really matter where it is. It is always surprising to us when we find something like this in a red state.”
He also described what a victory looks like to the Equality Protection Project.
“A victory to us is when the school stops the discrimination and in many of our cases, [the schools] realize they have no defense, [and] they will voluntarily end the discrimination,” 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.
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