Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

September 3, 2024

Docket No.

N/A

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On September 3, 2024, the Equal Protection Project (EPP) filed a Civil Rights Complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights against the University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business (“Haas”). The Complaint alleges that the University of California, Berkeley, a public institution that is a recipient of federal funding, through Hass, “offers, promotes, and administers a race-and national origin-based ‘MBA access program’ called the Haas Thrive Fellows program, whose purpose, according to jts website, is ‘to educate, prepare, and motivate Latinx/Hispanic individuals to apply and succeed at a top business school, and support their career advancement’ as part of ‘our commitment to increase the Latinx/Hispanic population within the graduate management community.'”

The Complaint then sets out, in detail and using Hass’s own website, the eligibility conditions for the Haas Thrive Fellows program.

Title VI, which prohibits race-based discrimination by any entity receiving federal funding, applies to the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. From the Complaint:

Haas violates Title VI by conditioning eligibility for participation in the Haas Thrive Fellows program on a student’s race and national origin…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 the University of California, Berkeley receives federal funds, it is subject to Title VI.

 

Simply put, “Title VI prohibits a recipient of federal funds from intentionally treating any individual worse even in part because of his race, color, or national origin and without regard to any other reason or motive the recipient might assert.” [Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harv. Coll., 600 U.S. 181,] 290 (2023) (Gorsuch, J., concurring) (cleaned up). Thus, regardless of Haas’s reasons for sponsoring and promoting the Haas Thrive Fellows program, it violated and continues to violate Title VI by doing so.

The Complaint also alleges that because the University of California, Berkeley is a public institution, it is violating the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment:

And, because Haas is part of a public institution, its creation, sponsorship and promotion of the Haas Thrive Fellows program also violates the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment…Because Haas’s racial and ethnic requirements for the Haas Thrive Fellows program are presumptively invalid, and in the absence of any compelling government justification for such invidious discrimination, its use of such criteria violates federal civil rights statutes and constitutional equal protection guarantees.

The Complaint then summarizes and requests OCR take action:

The Office for Civil Rights has the power and obligation to investigate Haas’s role in creating, supporting and promoting this program 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.

 

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 Haas Thrive Fellows program based on discriminatory criteria, and ensure that all ongoing and future programming through Haas comports with the Constitution and federal civil rights laws.

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