Twenty-Four Discriminatory Scholarships at Bowling Green State U Challenged By Equal Protection Project

Twenty-Four Discriminatory Scholarships at Bowling Green State U Challenged By Equal Protection Project

So far in 2025, our Equal Protection Project (EqualProtect.org) has filed 18 cases covering 40 colleges and universities with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education, including a case filed on April 29, 2025, against the Bowling Green State University (BGSU). 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 BGSU:

We bring this civil rights complaint against Bowling Green State University (“BGSU”), a public university, for discrimination in twenty-four (24) scholarships based on race, color, national origin, or sex, in violation of Title VI and Title IX, respectively.

Many BGSU scholarships are offered automatically to eligible students after they are accepted into the university.2 BGSU also offers a searchable scholarship guide that allows students to view any listed scholarship.3 [images omitted]

The scholarships listed below are currently offered to BGSU students and applicants for admission, according to the BGSU website, and violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations4 by illegally excluding students based on their race, color or national origin, or Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”) and

its implementing regulations5 by excluding students based on their sex. Because BGSU 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 available for the 2025-2026 school year, according to the BGSU website (discriminatory requirement in bold)….

We then go on to list and detail each of the twenty-four scholarships at issue, and the relevant law, concluding with a request for OCR to open a formal investigation.

WTVG ABC13 covered the story, including an interview with me:

There are plenty of scholarships you can apply for at BGSU, but exactly who applies is at the heart of this complaint filed with the US Department of Education’s Civil Rights Office.

“We’re not opposed to these scholarships at all, in fact we want the students to get the money. But they should be open to everybody without regard to race, nationality or sex,” said William Jacobson.

Jacobson and his group have challenged similar scholarships at about 90 different schools. Specifically, they go after ones that mention a gender, race or ethnicity as part of the award process and are funded, promoted, or administered by the university.

For example, at BGSU, the Mary M. Edmunds scholarship gives preference to a member of a historically underrepresented minority group.

“The argument that we need to discriminate because of past discrimination is 1) legally unsound and 2) is a gross negative stereotype,” said Jacobson.

In a statement, Bowling Green State University said in part: “BGSU is continuing to work diligently to respond to the rapidly changing guidance and laws coming from multiple directions for higher education. We are continuing our work to ensure compliance with all federal and state laws and executive orders.”

This is not a lawsuit. Jacobson admits there is no specific person at BGSU who was denied one of these scholarships based on their race, gender or ethnicity.

“The people who are excluded don’t bother applying. There for [sic] you’re not going to get instances where someone applies for a scholarship where the website says they’re not eligible and they don’t bother applying,” said Jacobson.

This was filed with the Department of Education on Tuesday. While the school says it’s not seen it yet, they are committed to ensuring all students have access to education here and are supported in earning that degree.

Full Statement from Bowling Green State University:

“BGSU is continuing to work diligently to respond to the rapidly changing guidance and laws coming from multiple directions for higher education. We are continuing our work to ensure compliance with all federal and state laws and executive orders.

While the University has not received communication from the Department of Education on this complaint, we remain committed to ensuring all students have access to a high-quality, affordable education where they are supported in successfully earning their degree.”

[Click image for video]

=======================

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.