Case

Equal Protection Project v. Dominican University

Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

February 4, 2025

Docket No.

N/A

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On February 4, 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 Dominican University (“Dominican”) of Illinois for four scholarships that discriminate on the basis of race, color, and/or national origin.

 

From the Complaint:

 

We write in connection with Dominican University (“Dominican”), a private university, arising from its race- and ethnicity- based discrimination in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations. As set forth below, Dominican operates, administers and promotes four (4) discriminatory scholarship programs. These scholarship programs, among other things, set up unequal standards of eligibility so that students similarly situated are treated differently based on race, color, and/or national origin, in clear violation of Title VI.

 

Dominican offers a variety of scholarships available across the university. The Dominican website states that “[s]cholarships are one of the most important tools for making education affordable.”

 

EPP’s OCR Civil Rights Complaint then uses Dominican’s own website to describe in detail the racially discriminatory aspects of each of the four offending scholarships. For example, the fourth offending scholarship, entitled the “Title V, Part B PPOHA Stipends,” states that “[p]reference will be given to Latine or Hispanic students.”

 

The Complaint then explains why these scholarships violate federal law:

 

The scholarships identified above violate Title VI by discriminating on the basis of race, color, and/or national origin. 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” 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 Dominican receives federal funds (including from the Department of Education), 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.

 

In this case, the explicit use of race and skin color criteria constitutes unlawful discrimination. Additionally, such criteria serve as signals” of racial preferences. As the Second Circuit recognized in Ragin v. New York Times Co., 923 F.2d 995, 999–1000 (2d Cir. 1991), even subtle messaging can convey discriminatory preferences: “Ordinary readers may reasonably infer a racial message from advertisements that are more subtle than the hypothetical swastika or burning cross, and we read the word ‘preference’ to describe any ad that would discourage an ordinary reader of a particular race from answering it.”

 

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

 

The Complaint then summarizes and requests OCR take action:

 

Because the discrimination outlined above is presumptively illegal, and since Dominican cannot show any compelling government justification for it, 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 Dominican’s role in creating, funding, promoting and administering these scholarships as well as 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 Dominican’s various scholarships based on discriminatory criteria, and ensure that all ongoing and future scholarships and programming at Dominican comports with the federal civil rights laws.

 

OCR is evaluating EPP’s Civil Rights Complaint against Dominican for further action.

Media Coverage