Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

May 21, 2025

Docket No.

N/A

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On May 21, 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 Bowdoin College (Bowdoin) “for discrimination in eighteen (18) scholarships and programs based on race, color, or national origin, based on sex, or both, in violation of Title VI and Title IX, respectively.”

The Complaint continues:

The scholarships listed below are currently active according to the Bowdoin website, and violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations by excluding students based on their race, color, or national origin, while other scholarships violate Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”) and its implementing regulations by excluding students based on their sex[.]

The Complaint then uses Bowdoin’s own website to demonstrate how each of the 18 challenged scholarships is discriminatory in nature.

After that, the Complaint explains in detail why these scholarships violate federal law:

The scholarships and programs identified above violate either Title VI, by discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin, or Title IX, by discriminating on the basis of sex, or both.

 

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

 

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).

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 programs on race, color, and/or national origin, and/or sex, violates Title VI and/or Title IX, or both.

 

The Office for Civil Rights has the power and obligation to investigate Bowdoin’s role in creating, funding, promoting and administering these scholarships – and, given how many there are, to discern whether Bowdoin 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).

 

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

OCR is evaluating EPP’s Complaint for further action.