Eight Discriminatory Scholarships, Including DACA/Undocumented-Only, at Western Michigan U Challenged By Equal Protection Project
“Our primary goal every time we file one of these civil rights complaints is to end the discriminatory behavior,”
The Equal Protection Project (EqualProtect.org) recently reached a milestone — our 100th school, college, or university challenged over DEI discrimination, covering over 450 discriminatory programs and scholarships. So far 2025 has been our busiest and most productive year since launch in February 2023 – we are expanding legal staff, in the past several months adding two full time attorneys.
Our most recent filing was a Civil Rights Complaint at the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education against Western Michigan University (“WMU”), covering eight scholarships, five of which discriminated on the basis of race, color, or national origin, and three of which discriminated on the basis of sex.
From the Complaint (images omitted):
We bring this civil rights complaint against Western Michigan University (“WMU”), a public university, for discrimination in eight (8) scholarships based on race, color, national origin, or sex, in violation of Title VI and Title IX, respectively.
WMU offers a variety of scholarships.2 According to the university, “Students earn scholarships for financial need, academic success and promoting multicultural awareness.” Eligible students may receive awards based on these criteria.
While many scholarships are only accessible to students with a login, the following scholarships are publicly viewable and currently offered to WMU students and applicants, according to the WMU website.3 These scholarships 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 WMU 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 with the application period currently open, according to the WMU website.6
We then go on to list each challenged scholarship with links and images. Included among the scholarships was a DACA/Undocumented-only scholarship:
WMU Undocumented/DACA Scholarship
Link: https://wmich.edu/finaid/aid-types/institutional-offers#:~:text=,enrollment%20each%20semester%20is%20required
Archived Link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250627182336/https://wmich.edu/finaid/aid-types/institutional-offers
Discriminatory Requirement: “Scholarship aid is for undergraduate students who are ineligible to receive federal student aid due to an undocumented or DACA status.”77 Because DACA only applies to persons born outside the United States who meet certain additional criteria, restricting scholarship eligibility to DACA recipients constitutes discrimination based on national origin and violates Title VI. See https://www.uscis.gov/DACA [https://archive.is/PfwjL] (accessed July 9, 2025). Similarly, “undocumented” status only applies to students born outside the United States. This scholarship discriminates against American-born students.
We have challenged such scholarships at University of Louisville and U. Nebraska-Omaha (which removed the scholarship after our complaint).
News3 WWMT in Kalamazoo covered the filing:
A civil rights group has filed a complaint against Western Michigan University, accusing the school of discrimination based on race and gender.
The Equal Protection Project filed the complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Wednesday, according to founder William Jacobson….
“Our primary goal every time we file one of these civil rights complaints is to end the discriminatory behavior,” Jacobson said.
The case lists eight different scholarships the university offers, the complaint said. Many of these scholarships have requirements based off of certain races and genders.
The group claims these programs are not inclusive to everyone, according to the complaint.
Jacobson claims it’s a violation of Title VI, Title IX and equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution.
“It so happens that the five scholarships here that discriminate on the basis of race discriminate against white students, but we have challenged scholarships that have any sort of discrimination,” Jacobson said.
The Department of Education would still have to decide whether to open an investigation.
The Equal Protection Projected has filed complaints against several colleges across the country, including Grand Valley State University in January.
News Channel 3 reached out to Western Michigan University and a spokesperson said they haven’t received a notification of the complaint and will cooperage [sic] with the federal agency.
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
Cue my same ol, same ol: I like EPP’s way of doing something better than the other ‘activist orgs’ way of doing nothing, but until state AGs or fed DOJ start criminally prosecuting these uni / district admins for aggressively, egregiously, repeatedly violating citizens’ civil rights under Title XYZ laws it will continue to be a game of wack-a-mole in **clown world** where they will do it again and again and again because these uni / district admins suffer no personal consequences for their criminal actions.
I could have used you guys a few years ago when I was in school.
Undocumented, as in probably illegal?