Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

May 28, 2025

Docket No.

OCR Case Number 01-25-2177

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On May 28, 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 the University of Connecticut (UConn) for “for discrimination in four (4) scholarships based on race, color, and/or national origin, in violation of Title VI and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

The Complaint continues:

UConn has a strong commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ). As expressed in its Mission Statement: “We aim to support diversity, equity, and inclusion through offering support for success for people of all backgrounds.” As set forth below, this DEIJ commitment has resulted in the implementation of discriminatory programs at the university.

 

The scholarships listed below are currently offered to UConn students and applicants for admission, according to the UConn website, and violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations by illegally excluding students based on their race, color or national origin. Because UConn is a public university, these discriminatory
scholarships also violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The Complaint then demonstrates, using UConn’s own website, the discriminatory nature of each of the challenged scholarships.

The Complaint next explains how the challenged scholarships violate federal law and the U.S. Constitution:

The scholarships identified above violate Title VI, by discriminating on the basis of race, skin color, or national origin. Furthermore, because UConn is a public university, such discrimination also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

 

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” encompasses “all of the operations … of a college, university, or other postsecondary institution, or a public system of higher education.” See 42 U.S.C. § 2000d4a(2)(A). As noted in Rowles v. Curators of the University of Missouri, 983 F.3d 345, 355 (8th Cir. 2020), “Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race in federally funded programs,” and therefore applies to universities receiving federal financial assistance. Because UConn receives and administers federal funds through numerous programs, it is subject to Title VI.

 

Regardless of UConn’s reasons for offering, promoting, and administering such discriminatory scholarships, it is violating Title VI by doing so. It does not matter if the recipient of federal funding discriminates in order to advance a benign “intention” or “motivation.” [citations omitted]…

 

As UConn is a public university, its offering, promoting, and administering these discriminatory scholarships also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. [citations omitted]…

The Complaint then summarizes and requests OCR take action:

UConn’s explicit race, color, and/or national origin scholarships are presumptively invalid, and since there is no compelling government justification for such invidious discrimination, UConn’s offering, promotion, and administration of these programs violates state and federal civil rights statutes and constitutional equal protection guarantees…

 

The Office for Civil Rights has the power and obligation to investigate UConn’s role in creating, funding, promoting and administering 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…

 

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

OCR is evaluating EPP’s Complaint for further action.