Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

April 15, 2025

Docket No.

N/A

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On April 15, 2025, the Equal Protection Project (EPP) filed a Civil Rights Complaint against Westfield State University (WSU) with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) “for discrimination in six (6) scholarships based on race, color, national origin, or sex, in violation of Title VI and Title IX, respectively.”

The Complaint continues:

The scholarships listed below are currently offered to Westfield State students and applicants for admission, according to the Westfield State 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 and skin color or Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”) and its implementing regulations by excluding students based on their sex. Because Westfield State 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 uses WSU’s own website to show the discriminatory nature of each of the challenged scholarships.

Then the Complaint explains in detail why these scholarships violate federal law and the U.S. Constitution:

The scholarships identified above violate either Title VI, by discriminating on the basis of race, skin color, or national origin, or Title IX, by discriminating on the basis of sex. Furthermore, because Westfield State 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 Westfield State receives and administers federal funds through numerous programs and is a public institution, it is subject to Title VI…

 

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). Accordingly, a school receiving federal funding may not administer scholarships, fellowships, or other forms of financial assistance that impose preferences or restrictions based on sex, except in limited exceptions that are not applicable here. See 34 C.F.R. § 106.37(a)…

 

As Westfield State is a public university, its offering, promoting, and administering these discriminatory scholarships also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment…

The Complaint then summarizes and requests OCR take action:

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

OCR is evaluating EPP’s Compliant against Westfield State University for further action.