‘Disheartening’: Civil rights group says Western Michigan scholarships break federal law

The Equal Protection Project (EPP) has filed a civil rights complaint against Western Michigan University asserting that eight of its scholarships violate federal law.

The complaint, filed on July 9 with the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, says that the scholarships violate Title VI and Title IX.

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Five of the scholarships violate Title VI, according to the complaint. Those awards include the WMU Undocumented/DACA Scholarship, Doctors Paul Brown & Bassett Brown and the V. Delores Brown Scholarship, Dr. William F. Pickard Endowed Scholarship, Elissa Gatlin Endowed Scholarship, and Dulcet Scholarship.   

The university has already removed some of the scholarships from its website. The Dulcet Scholarship, which the EPP’s complaint provides an archived link for, requires students to be African American in order to apply. 

However, the scholarship no longer appears on the university’s scholarship page.

The Elissa Gatlin scholarship requires applicants to be “African American, Native American or Hispanic American.” The Doctors Paul Brown & Bassett Brown Scholarship gives preference to “minority students enrolled in programs of study in pre-medicine, pre-dental, or paramedical fields.”

The complaint also points to three scholarships that give preference to students based on sex, in violation of Title IX.

The Dr. Susan Burns Scholarship requires applicants to be female in order to be eligible, as does the Lilian Meyer Scholarship. 

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Meanwhile, the A. Edythe Mange Distinguished Scholarship is for “female recipients who are dedicated to their field, and who will likely serve the profession throughout their careers.” 

“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,” the complaint says. “Furthermore, because WMU is a public university, such discrimination also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

“That race- or sex-based discriminatory scholarships exist at a major public university is disheartening,” EPP founder William Jacobson said in a statement to Campus Reform. “It is time for higher education everywhere to focus on the inherent worth and dignity of every student rather than categorizing students based on identity groups.”

Campus Reform has contacted Western Michigan University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.