Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

November 25, 2024

Docket No.

N/A

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On November 25, 2024, the Equal Protection Project (EPP) filed a Civil Rights Complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) against Northern Illinois University (NIU) for “for sponsoring and promoting (1) a program called the Black Student Achievement Program (BSAP) which discriminates on the basis of race and color, in violation of Title VI and the 14th Amendment, and (2) a program called the Black Male Initiative (BMI) that discriminates on the basis of race and color, and sex, in violation of Titles VI and IX and the 14th Amendment.”

The Complaint then uses NIU’s own websites to show that BSAP is “intended only for black students” and that BMI is “intended only for black male students.”

These categorical racial, and in BMI’s case, gender-based restrictions violate federal law and the U.S. Constitution:

BSAP and BMI violate Title VI because they condition eligibility for participation on a student’s race and skin color. And, because NIU is a public university, its sponsorship, promotion and hosting of these discriminatory programs also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

 

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 public system of higher education.” See 42 U.S.C. § 2000d-4a(2)(A). As NIU receives federal funds, including from the U.S. Department of Education, it is subject to Title VI.

 

Indeed, based on the requirement that participating students be black (BSAP) or black male (BMI), these campus meetings would be de facto segregated by race and skin color. Any reasonable student viewing the information on the NIU website would understand the racially exclusionary basis of the programs, and non-black students would be dissuaded from even applying or attempting to participate…

 

And, because NIU is a public university, its sponsorship and promotion of the BSAP and BMI also violates the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment…

 

Title IX makes it unlawful to discriminate in education based on sex. That statute provides that “[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.” For this reason, a school may not administer programs that impose a preference or restriction based on sex, with limited exceptions not applicable here…

 

Here, the sex-based eligibility criteria for BMI is clear, it is only open to men. Females need not apply. The sex-based eligibility criterion is, by its terms, applied mechanically, and without any statistical justification warranted by any alleged past discrimination by NIU. Accordingly, NIU’s sex discrimination through BMI is unlawful.

The Complaint then sums and asks OCR to take action:

The Office for Civil Rights has the power and obligation to investigate NIU’s role in promoting and administering these programs 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. After all, “[t]he way to stop discrimination,” the Supreme Court has taught, “is to stop discriminating[.]” [citation omitted]

 

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 the NIU programs based on discriminatory criteria and ensure that all ongoing and future programming through NIU comports with the Constitution and federal civil rights laws.

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