Thirty-Two Discriminatory Scholarships at Florida State Univ. Challenged By Equal Protection Project
We didn’t expect to find such a large number of discriminatory scholarships at a major state university in the anti-woke Free State of Florida.
The Equal Protection Project (EqualProtect.org) has challenged almost 500 discriminatory programs and scholarships at over 100 colleges and universities. But we didn’t expect to find a major problem at one of the largest state universities in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis has made getting DEI out of higher ed one of his priorities.
One of our most recent filings was a Civil Rights Complaint on July 18, 2025, at the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education against Florida State University, based in Tallahasee, regarding thirty-two (32) discriminatory scholarships. That’s not the highest number we’ve seen at a single institution, but it’s close to the highest.
From the Civil Rights Complaint (images omitted):
We bring this civil rights complaint against Florida State University (“FSU”), a public university, for discrimination in thirty-two (32) scholarships based on race, color, national origin, and/or sex, in violation of Title VI and Title IX, respectively.
FSU offers a range of scholarships based on merit, extracurricular involvement, or personal background, but recipients must meet specific eligibility and renewal requirements.2 In most cases, students are considered based on the information provided in their general scholarship application.
The Finding Scholarships For You (“FS4U”) platform—FSU’s online scholarship system—is frequently updated with new opportunities and includes many scholarships that are awarded primarily based on the general scholarship application. 3
The scholarships listed below are currently offered to FSU students and applicants for admission, according to the FSU website, and violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations4 by discriminating against 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 discriminating against students based on their sex. Because FSU is a public university, these discriminatory scholarships also violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.6
Each of the scholarships listed below are currently available to students, according to the FSU website7 (discriminatory requirement in bold): ….
We then go on to list each scholarship and the discriminatory criteria, supported by links, archived links, and screen shots. Because there are so many scholarships at issue, I’ll just list one example by category:
I. SCHOLARSHIPS THAT VIOLATE TITLE VI (14)
1. Crockett Family Fund for Excellence
Link: https://fsu.academicworks.com/opportunities/35068
Archived Link: https://archive.ph/wip/iVg3o
Discriminatory Requirement: “Any student may apply to be considered for the award; however, it is the preference of the donor that the recipient be an African American/Black student.”***
II. SCHOLARSHIPS THAT VIOLATE BOTH TITLE VI AND IX (5)
1. Crossman Career Builders Scholarship
Link: https://fsu.academicworks.com/opportunities/33211
Archived Link: https://archive.ph/wip/xzIBr
Discriminatory Requirement: “Any student may apply to be considered for the award; however, it is the preference of the donor that the recipient be a female who is Black/African American, Hispanic, or a member of the Seminole Tribe.”***
III. SCHOLARSHIPS THAT VIOLATE TITLE IX (13)
1. College of Arts and Sciences Student Travel Awards
Link: https://fsu.academicworks.com/opportunities/35507
Archived Link: https://archive.ph/wip/COrz9
Discriminatory Requirement: “Any student may apply to be considered for the award; however, it is the preference of the donor that the recipient be a female.”
Notice that FSU uses a linguistic slight of hand – saying any student may apply but also stating the “preference of the donor” for the discriminatory criteria. That’s not going to fly. As we state in the Civil Rights Complaint:
[fn] 6 FSU frequently references the “preference of the donor” for discrimination. That is not a defense for FSU since it is promoting the scholarships in a manner that would dissuade non-favored groups from applying. There would be no reason for FSU to include such preferences in the scholarship description unless it intended to honor donor intent.
***
Racial criteria and preferences serve as “signals” of racial and sex-based preferences. As the Second Circuit recognized in Ragin v. New York Times Co., 923 F.2d 995, 999–1000 (2d Cir. 1991), even subtle messaging can convey discriminatory preferences: “Ordinary readers may reasonably infer a racial message from advertisements that are more subtle than the hypothetical swastika or burning cross, and we read the word ‘preference’ to describe any ad that would discourage an ordinary reader of a particular race from answering it.” It is no defense, accordingly, that FSU expresses the discrimination as a “preference of the donor” in many instances. Such word games cannot evade the civil rights laws and equal protection constitutional guarantee.
Florida media has largely ignored this Civil Rights Complaint. Strange!
I wonder that Gov. DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier think about this. We’ll try to find out and let you know.
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
This is an embarrassment to Florida, the state where Christopher Rufo is trying to overhaul The New College.
It shows how much work there is to do to take on RINOs, legislators that don’t really want to tackle this stuff, and administrators & trustees of the system both inside and outside the universities.