A federal complaint submitted by the Equal Protection Project to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights on Monday alleged the University violated federal law by offering scholarships that discriminate based on sex, national origin and/or race.
William Jacobson, Cornell Law School professor and founder of Legal Insurrection Foundation, said the University has the highest number of “discriminatory” scholarships he’s seen.
“We have never seen a university with this many discriminatory scholarships,” Jacobson said. “It’s really astounding that there are 42 here, which leads us to believe there is a systemic non-compliance here.”
The EPP is a project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation — or LIF — a “conservative investigative publication” that tries to protect those targeted by First Amendment attacks. The EPP has submitted about 30 federal complaints against various universities for discriminatory behavior since its creation in February 2023.
Nineteen total scholarships mentioned in the complaint obtained by The Daily Illini allegedly violate Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools and activities. Eight of these scholarships require applicants to be women, two require them to be male, eight prefer female applicants and one prefers male applicants.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
Another 19 scholarships supposedly violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. This provision outlaws discrimination based on race or national origin in higher education and activities by requiring or giving preference to applicants from underrepresented populations or minority groups.
Four scholarships are cited as violating both Title IX and Title VI, discriminating against applicants based on both sex and race.
The complaint further claimed that offering these scholarships violates the University’s non-discrimination policy, which promises the University of Illinois System will “comply with all federal and state non-discrimination, equal opportunity and affirmative action laws, orders and regulations.”
“It’s not just a federal law violation; it’s a violation of the university’s own non-discrimination rules,” Jacobson said. “And we think they should live up to their own rules.”
If the Department of Education chooses to investigate the University and finds that these scholarships violate Title VI and/or Title IX, Jacobson said that schools typically correct the questioned behavior and take remedial action. However, schools can be taken to federal court or referred to the Department of Justice if the behavior is not corrected.
“In theory, they could pull federal funding, although that’s highly unlikely,” Jacobson said. “Most of (these complaints), where there is a clear violation, and we believe there is, the school will recognize the problem and will remedy it.”
The complaint subsequently called for “remedial relief as the law permits for the benefit of anyone who may have been illegally excluded from UIUC’s scholarship offerings based on discriminatory criteria.”
Jacobson said that since it’s unclear whether or not the University would’ve kept records of scholarship applicants rejected based on race or sex, it’s hard to identify those specifically impacted by these application processes.
“The school could open these up to everybody, perhaps expand them at the school’s expense, so provide more of these scholarships without discrimination for the upcoming year,” Jacobson said. “There’s a variety of remedies, but the problem with advertising or promoting discriminatory scholarships or school programs is that people get scared away.”
The University did not respond to requests for comment.
