Northern Arizona University Race-Focused Dorms Challenged By Equal Protection Project

Northern Arizona University Race-Focused Dorms Challenged By Equal Protection Project

The Equal Protection Project (EqualProtect.org) is a project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation devoted to fighting unlawful discrimination in all forms. While most of our cases have involved race, color, and national origin discrimination, we challenge all forms of unlawful discrimination, including sex discrimination.

Since its launch, EPP has challenged over 850 discriminatory programs and scholarships at more than 290 colleges and universities. This is done to ensure that every student has the opportunity to compete on equal terms.

Our most recent filing on August 26, 2026, was a Civil Rights Complaint against Northern Arizona University (“NAU”):

We bring this complaint and request for investigation against NAU for operating two discriminatory university housing programs that use race- and ethnicity-based descriptions and promotional materials to steer students based on race, color, and national origin, in violation of the Fair Housing Act (“FHA”). Moreover, the programs are each named utilizing the racial identities of their suggested racial participants.

We first explain the Fair Housing Act and how an entity can violate it even without an explicitly discriminatory eligibility requirement:

Enacted as Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, the FHA was intended “to provide, within constitutional limitations, for fair housing throughout the United States.” The FHA prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, and national origin in the sale or rental of housing. The FHA applies to a broad assortment of housing, both public and private, including single-family homes, apartments, condominiums, and mobile homes. Courts have also concluded that the FHA applies to college dormitories.

Under the FHA, it is unlawful to “make, print, or publish, or cause to be made, printed, or published any notice, statement, or advertisement, with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation, or discrimination.”6 Under applicable Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regulations enforcing the FHA, this kind of “steering” toward or away from housing based on race is strictly prohibited.7 Steering liability attaches even if the housing program does not physically bar members of other racial or ethnic groups from participating.

We then go on to explain what the housing programs is and how it violates the Fair Housing Act:

NAU’s identity-based “Focused Housing” programs are university-sponsored residential communities that allow students to live together while participating in shared programming centered on a common identity. According to NAU, “[t]hrough community-building activities, educational opportunities, networking, academic support, and social and cultural events, community members can deepen their learning and understanding, reduce social isolation, and build lasting connections within a supportive environment.”

1. “Black Culture Focused Housing”

Link: https://in.nau.edu/campus-living/focused-housing
Discriminatory Requirement: “Black Culture Focused Housing aims to foster a strong sense of belonging and connection through living and learning together while exploring traditional and contemporary aspects of Black intellectual, social, and cultural life.”

2. “Indigenous Peoples Living-Learning Community”

Link: https://in.nau.edu/campus-living/ipllc/
Discriminatory Requirement: “The IPLLC aims to foster a strong sense of belonging and connection through living and learning together while exploring traditional and contemporary aspects of Indigenous intellectual, social, and cultural life.”

EPP then explains why such a requirement violates federal law:

NAU’s discriminatory Focused Housing Programs encourage, and/or deter, students from dormitory housing based on race, color, national origin, and therefore violate multiple provisions of federal law. Most obviously, these programs violate the Fair Housing Act because they classify and promote university housing based on race and national origin. Even if HUD were to conclude that the programs are not formally exclusionary, they independently violate the Act’s prohibition on discriminatory housing statements and racial steering.

As we always do, we then spend several pages explaining why the programs violates not only federal law. We then request that a formal investigation be opened.

This is not the first housing matter challenged by the Equal Protection Project. HUD has already opened investigations into housing programs at UConn, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Nevada, Reno, and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

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.

Robert Fox is an attorney at the Equal Protection Project, and focuses, among things, on filing civil rights complaints against DEI discrimination.

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