Nebraska university removes 'discriminatory' language from scholarships after civil rights complaint
A civil rights group claimed victory after the University of Nebraska Omaha recently removed 'discriminatory language' from two scholarships, with one of the scholarships entirely removed.
The Equal Protection Project, a conservative advocacy group, filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on May 14.
A civil rights group claimed victory after the University of Nebraska Omaha recently removed “discriminatory language” from two scholarships, with one of the scholarships entirely removed.
The Equal Protection Project, a conservative advocacy group, filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on May 14. The university did not publicize the decision to change the scholarships.
The May 14 complaint cites two scholarships on the university’s page containing “discriminatory language” in their descriptions. At the time of the complaint’s filing, the “HDR Scholarship” gave preference to “underrepresented minority students,” while also stipulating that such identity “shall not be the controlling criterion.”
The school also awarded the Dreamers Pathway Scholarship to “students who are Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or DACA-eligible.”
By late June, the university had removed the language that the EPP criticized as illegal. The page for the HDR Scholarship no longer mentions “underrepresented minority students.”
The Dreamers Pathway Scholarship no longer appears on the university’s website and clicking on the complaint’s embedded link leads to the Forward Together Scholarship.
The EPP celebrated the university’s decision as a victory in a blog post on June 27.
“We have independently verified that UNO has removed the discriminatory language/requirement from both scholarships, so we here at EPP are counting the UNO case as a WIN on our ledger,” the page says.
“[S]ince there is no compelling government justification for such invidious discrimination,” the EPP complaint says, the university’s “use of such criteria violates state and federal civil rights statutes and constitutional equal protection guarantees.”
The conservative organization has filed many civil rights complaints over the past several months, highlighting scholarships that give preference based on the identity of the applicant, especially race and gender.
Examples of the group’s filings include complaints against the University of Louisville, the University of Connecticut, and DePaul University.
In one example of a scholarship with “discriminatory” requirements, Louisville’s Dawn Wilson Scholarship says it will “subsidize the cost of higher education at the University of Louisville for undergraduate LGBTQ+ students of color.”
Campus Reform contacted the University of Nebraska Omaha and the Equal Protection Project for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
