Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

March 26, 2025

Docket No.

OCR Case Number 05-25-2303

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On March 26, 2025, the Equal Protection Project (EPP) filed a Civil Rights Complaint against Indiana University South Bend (IUSB) with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) “for offering, administering, and promoting five (5) scholarships that discriminate based on race, color, and/or national origin.”

The Complaint continues:

The scholarships listed below are currently offered to IUSB students and applicants for admission, according to the IUSB website, and violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations by discriminating against students based on their race, color, and/or national origin. Because IUSB is a public university, these discriminatory scholarships also violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The Complaint then uses IUSB’s own website to point out the details of each of the five scholarships and how each is discriminatory.

The Complaint next explains how the scholarships violate Title VI and the Fourteenth Amendment:

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 IUSB receives federal funds, it is subject to Title VI…

 

As IUSB is a public university, its offering, promoting, and administrating these discriminatory scholarships also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In [Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. 181 (2023)], the Supreme Court emphasized that “[e]liminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it …. The guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color. If both are not accorded the same protection, then it is not equal.” Id. at 206 (cleaned up). The Court further declared, “Distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry [including race] are by their very nature odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality.” Id. at 208. Consequently, “[a]ny exception to the Constitution’s demand for equal protection must survive a daunting two-step examination known … as strict scrutiny.” Id. at 206 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). The scholarships at issue here cannot withstand that exacting standard.

 

As OCR stated in its February 14, 2025, Civil Rights Guidance Letter:

 

Although SFFA addressed admissions decisions, the Supreme Court’s holding applies more broadly. At its core, the test is simple: If an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another person because of that person’s race, the educational institution violates the law. Federal law thus prohibits covered entities from using race in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life. Put simply, educational institutions may neither separate or segregate students based on race, nor distribute benefits or burdens based on race.

The Complaint then summarizes and requests OCR take action:

Because the discrimination outlined above is presumptively illegal, and since IUSB cannot show any compelling government justification for it, the fact that it conditions eligibility for multiple scholarships on race, color, and national origin violates federal civil rights statutes and constitutional equal protection guarantees.

 

The Office for Civil Rights has the power and obligation to investigate IUSB’s role in creating, funding, promoting and administering these scholarships – and, given how many there are, to discern whether IUSB is engaging in such discrimination in its other activities – and to impose whatever remedial relief is necessary to hold it accountable for that 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…

 

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 IUSB’s various scholarships based on discriminatory criteria, and ensure that all ongoing and future scholarships and programming at IUSB comports with the Constitution and federal civil rights laws.

OCR is evaluating EPP’s Civil Rights Complaint.