Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

September 16, 2025

Docket No.

OCR Case No. 15-25-2340

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On September 16, 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 University of Toledo “for discrimination in eight (8) scholarships and programs, seven of which are based on sex, in violation of Title IX, and one of which is based on race, color, or national origin, in violation of Title VI.”

EPP’s Complaint continues:

The scholarships listed below are currently offered to UToledo students and applicants for admission, according to the UToledo website, and violate Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”) and its implementing regulations by discriminating against students based on their sex, while others violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations by illegally discriminating against students based on their race, color or national origin.

The Complaint uses University of Toledo’s own websites to demonstrate the discriminatory nature of the programs.

Next, the Complaint explains why the challenged scholarships violate federal law:

The scholarships identified above violate either Title IX, by discriminating on the basis of sex, or Title VI, by discriminating on the basis of race, skin color, or national origin.

 

Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education. The statute provides: “[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.” 20 U.S.C. § 1681(a)…

 

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. § 2000d-4a(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…

 

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

Finally, the Complaint then requests that OCR take action:

The Office for Civil Rights has the power and obligation to investigate UToledo’s role in creating, funding, promoting and administering these scholarships – and, given how many there are, to discern whether UToledo is engaging in such discrimination in its other activities –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 … is to stop discriminating[.]” Parents Involved in Cmty. Sch., 551 U.S. at 748.

 

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

OCR is evaluating EPP’s Complaint for further action.