Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

July 15, 2024

Docket No.

N/A

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On July 15, 2024, the Equal Protection Project (EPP) filed a Civil Rights Complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights against Indiana University. The Complaint alleges that Indiana University (IU), which is a recipient of federal funding, “offers, promotes, and administers at least 19 [unlawful] race-based scholarships at the Kelley School of Business, the IU Indianapolis campus and the McKinney School of Law.” The Complaint also alleges that the “number of discriminatory scholarships” that EPP challenges in its Complaint “and the number of IU institutions at which they are offered reflects a pervasive and systemic failure to comply with constitutional and statutory requirements at IU, warranting expedited investigation by OCR.”

The Complaint then sets out, in detail and using IU’s own website, the eligibility conditions for each of the 19 scholarships.

Title VI, which prohibits race-based discrimination by any entity receiving federal funding, applies to IU. From the Complaint:

Title VI prohibits intentional discrimination based on 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 IU receives federal funds, it is subject to Title VI.

The Complaint summarizes:

Because the discriminatory scholarship eligibility criteria outlined above are presumptively invalid, and because IU cannot show any compelling government justification for those restrictions, IU’s limitation of scholarships based on race 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 IU’s role in creating, supporting and promoting 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. “The way to stop discrimination,” the Supreme Court has taught, “is to stop discriminating.” Parents Involved in Cmty. Sch. [v. Seattle Sch. Dist. No. 1, 551 U.S. 701, 748 (2007)].

 

We request that OCR expedite the investigation of this complaint given the large number of discriminatory scholarships challenged and the systemic failure at IU to adhere to constitutional and statutory nondiscrimination requirements.

 

Accordingly, we respectfully ask that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights open a formal investigation, impose such remedial relief as the law permits for the benefit of those who have been illegally excluded from these IU scholarships based on discriminatory criteria, and ensure that all ongoing and future programming through IU comports with the Constitution and federal civil rights laws.

OCR is evaluating EPP’s Civil Rights Complaint.