Case Particulars

Tribunal

Office for Civil Rights, Department of Education

Date Filed

August 16, 2023

Docket No.

OCR Complaint No. 07232191

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed; Case dismissed as “moot” because because KSU had discontinued the challenged conduct

Case Overview

Kansas State University provides a scholarship, entitled the Joey Lee Garmon Undergraduate Multicultural Scholarship, that awards $700 to currently enrolled, full-time undergraduate students “of historically underrepresented backgrounds” at the university. The scholarship is named after its namesake, an African-American who was “unable to find sensitive nurturing of his cultural identity” in a “predominantly European American community.”

Eligibility guidelines for the scholarship state that applicants “must be of an ethnic group that has been historically and traditionally oppressed in the achievement of academic and leadership endeavors,” with special preference given to “applicants of African American, American Indian, Asian American, and Latinx American heritage.” Scholarship recipients will chosen by “a committee of university representatives,” to be awarded in Spring of 2024.

Equal Protection Project was the Complainant in this matter, which was under evaluation by the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights.

On February 5, 2024, EPP received a letter from OCR dismissing the case as moot due to the cessation of the challenged conduct.