Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

February 12, 2025

Docket No.

N/A

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On February 12, 2025, the Equal Protection Project (EPP) filed a Civil Rights Complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) against Alfred University (“Alfred”) of New York for a summer residency program for students that discriminates on the basis of race, color, and/or national origin.

From the Complaint:

We write in connection with Alfred University (“Alfred”), a private university, arising from its discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in violation of Title VI. Specifically, Alfred operates, administers, and promotes a Summer Arts BIPOC Residency program (the “Summer Arts BIPOC Residency”) open only to persons who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color. Whites are not eligible.

EPP’s OCR Civil Rights Complaint then uses Alfred’s own website to describe in detail the racially discriminatory aspects of the summer residency program. For example, on Alfred’s own website it explains that the program at issue is a “BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) Artist-in-Residence program [which] provides early-career BIPOC artists with time and space to dive deeply into their artistic research and practice, and creative endeavors.”

The Complaint then explains why this program violates federal law:

Alfred’s Summer Arts BIPOC Residency program violates Title VI by discriminating on the basis of race, color, and/or national origin. Title VI prohibits intentional discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin in any “program or activity” that receives federal financial assistance. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000d. The term “program or activity” means “all of the operations … of a college, university, or other postsecondary institution, or a public system of higher education.” See 42 U.S.C. § 2000d-4a(2)(A); Rowles v. Curators of the Univ. of Mo., 983 F.3d 345, 355 (8th Cir. 2020) (“Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race in federally funded programs,” and thus applies to universities receiving federal financial assistance). As Alfred receives federal funds (including from the Department of Education), it is subject to Title VI.

The Complaint then summarizes and requests that OCR take action:

Because the discrimination outlined above is presumptively illegal, the fact that it conditions eligibility for this residency program on race, color, and/or national origin violates Title VI.

 

The Office for Civil Rights has the power and obligation to investigate Alfred’s role in creating, funding, promoting and administering this program as well as imposing whatever remedial relief is necessary to hold it accountable for this unlawful conduct. This includes, if necessary, imposing fines, initiating administrative proceedings to suspend or terminate federal financial assistance and referring the case to the Department of Justice for judicial proceedings to enforce the rights of the United States under federal law. After all, “[t]he way to stop discrimination … is to stop discriminating[.]” Parents Involved in Cmty. Sch. v. Seattle Sch. Dist. No. 1, 551 U.S. 701, 748 (2007).

 

Accordingly, we respectfully ask that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights promptly open a formal investigation, impose such remedial relief as the law permits for the benefit of those who have been illegally excluded from Alfred’s Summer Arts BIPOC Residency program based on discriminatory criteria, and ensure that all ongoing and future programs at Alfred comports with the federal civil rights laws.

OCR is evaluating EPP’s Civil Rights Complaint against Alfred for further action.