Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

February 19, 2025

Docket No.

N/A

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On February 19, 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 the University of SanDiego (USD) for six scholarships that discriminate on the basis of race, color, and/or national origin.

From the Complaint:

We write in connection with the University of San Diego (“USD”), a private university, arising from its race- and ethnicity- based discrimination in violation of Title VI. As set forth below, USD operates, administers and promotes six (6) discriminatory scholarship programs. These scholarship programs set up unequal standards of eligibility so that students similarly situated are treated differently based on race and ethnicity, in clear violation of Title VI. As OCR recently reiterated in its February 14, 2025, Civil Rights Guidance Letter: “under any banner, discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is, has been, and will continue to be illegal.”

The Complaint then uses USD’s own website to show the discriminatory nature of each of the six scholarships.

The Complaint then explains why these scholarships are illegal:

The scholarships identified above violate Title VI by discriminating on the basis of race, color, and/or national origin. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act 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 USD receives federal funds, it is subject to Title VI…

 

Because USD’s racial and/or ethnicity-based requirements for these scholarships are presumptively invalid, the use of such criteria violates state and federal civil rights statutes.

The Complaint then summarizes and requests OCR take action:

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

 

The Office for Civil Rights has the power and obligation to investigate USD’s role in creating, funding, promoting and administering these scholarships as well as the duty to impose 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 USD’s various scholarships based on discriminatory criteria, and ensure that all ongoing and future scholarships and programming at USD comports with the federal civil rights laws.

OCR is evaluating EPP’s Complaint for further action.