Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

May 28, 2026

Docket No.

N/A

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On May 28, 2026, the Equal Protection Project (EPP) filed a Civil Rights Complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) against Alma College (“Alma”) regarding its Campbell Scholars Program (the “Campbell Program”), which discriminates on the basis of race, color, and/or national origin in violation of Title VI.

EPP’s Complaint states:

We bring this civil rights complaint against Alma College (“Alma”), a private institution, regarding its Campbell Scholars Program (the “Campbell Program”) which racially discriminates in violation of Title VI.

The Complaint uses Alma’s own websites to demonstrate the discriminatory nature of this program.

Next, the Complaint further explains why the program violates federal law:

The Campbell Program violates Title VI by discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin. Eligibility to the Campbell Program is expressly limited to students of color. Further, the JCLLC violates the Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) through race-based housing.

 

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 Alma receives federal funds, it is subject to Title VI.

 

In Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. 181 (2023), the Supreme Court declared 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). “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.

 

Alma also violates the FHA through its JCLLC, by conditioning participation in a residential housing program on race and color. First-year Campbell Scholars participants are required to live in separate housing through the JCLLC, which places students into a race-based residential program. Alma describes the JCLLC as a place where students can “Grow, learn and have fun in a space where students of color and allies live right next door.” The FHA prohibits discrimination on the basis of race and color in the provision of housing and applies to college dormitories

 

Finally, the Complaint then requests that OCR take action:

The Office for Civil Rights has the power and obligation to investigate Alma’s role in creating, funding, promoting and administering this program and to discern whether Alma is engaging in such discrimination in its other activities – 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).

OCR also should refer Alma’s apparent Fair Housing Act violations relating to the JCLLC to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”), the federal agency charged with enforcing the FHA, for investigation and any appropriate enforcement action.

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 programming at Alma based on discriminatory criteria, and ensure that all ongoing and future programs at Alma comport with the federal civil rights laws

 

OCR is evaluating EPP’s Complaint for further action.