Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

July 9, 2025

Docket No.

OCR Case Number 15-25-2259

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On July 9, 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 Western Michigan University (WMU) “for discrimination in eight (8) scholarships based on race, color, national origin, or sex, in violation of Title VI and Title IX, respectively.”

EPP’s Complaint continues:

These scholarships violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations4 by illegally excluding students based on their race, color or national origin, or Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”) and its implementing regulations by excluding students based on their sex. Because WMU is a public university, these discriminatory scholarships also violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

 

Each of the scholarships listed below are available for the 2025-2026 school year with the application period currently open, according to the WMU website.

The Complaint then uses WMU’s own website to describe the discriminatory nature of each challenged scholarship.

The Complaint next explains why these scholarships violate federal law and the U.S. Constitution:

The scholarships identified above violate either Title VI, by discriminating on the basis of race, skin color, or national origin, or Title IX, by discriminating on the basis of sex. Furthermore, because WMU is a public university, such discrimination also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

 

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” encompasses “all of the operations … of a college, university, or other postsecondary institution, or a public system of higher education.” See 42 U.S.C. § 2000d4a(2)(A). As noted in Rowles v. Curators of the University of Missouri, 983 F.3d 345, 355 (8th Cir. 2020), “Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race in federally funded programs,” and therefore applies to universities receiving federal financial assistance. Because WMU receives and administers federal funds through numerous programs, it is subject to Title VI.

 

Regardless of WMU’s reasons for offering, promoting, and administering such discriminatory scholarships, it is violating Title VI by doing so…

 

Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education. The statute provides: “[n]o person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” 20 U.S.C. § 1681(a). Accordingly, a school receiving federal funding may not administer scholarships, fellowships, or other forms of financial assistance that impose preferences or restrictions based on sex, except in limited exceptions that are not applicable here. See 34 C.F.R. § 106.37(a).

 

Restrictions that limit eligibility for scholarships based on sex are underinclusive, as they arbitrarily exclude students who would otherwise qualify…

 

As WMU is a public university, its offering, promoting, and administering these discriminatory scholarships also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment…

Finally, EPP’s Complaint requests OCR take action:

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

OCR is evaluating EPP’s Complaint against WMU.