CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — A federal civil rights complaint hits Drake University, and it’s all about a scholarship program allegedly breaking anti-discrimination laws.
The civil rights complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education is over who qualifies for a scholarship. A conservative legal group called the Equal Protection Project says the school is breaking federal law by factoring in race.
It was filed on April 22, saying Drake’s “crew scholars” program discriminates by making race part of who gets the scholarship. Founder and Cornell Law Professor William Jacobson says the school might be trying to grow diversity, but that doesn’t justify discrimination.
“If the goal of the program is to increase diversity, that is not a sufficiently compelling state interest in order to justify racial or ethnic discrimination,” Jacobson said.
The group accused Drake of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by limiting eligibility for its crew scholars program to students of color.
“As quoted in our complaint and screenshot, it is archived, and the program is open to incoming domestic students of color. By limiting the program and advertising it is open to students of color, they are, of course, excluding white students,” Jacobson said.
In the complaint, the founder points to the program being marketed on one webpage as open to “domestic students of color,” although another webpage for the University’s program omits race entirely and offers $500 and mentorship.
“They are dissuading people from applying. So that’s a violation. It would be the equivalent if you had a store and you hung a sign on it, no blacks allowed, or no whites allowed, or no Hispanics allowed,” Jacobson said. “It doesn’t matter whether you physically bar people from entering the store. The mere hanging of such a sign is unlawful.”
Jacobson says the bottom line if a school takes federal money, it has to play by federal rules.
“Drake, although it’s a private university, has to follow the Civil Rights Act because it receives federal funding. And therefore they do not have a right to discriminate because they accept federal funding.”
Iowa’s News Now reached out to Drake University for comment, but they declined and said the Department of Education hasn’t contacted them.
The Equal Protection Project has filed similar actions against colleges and universities across the country, including the University of Northern Iowa.
