A civil rights group filed a complaint Friday against the University of Alabama (UA) for offering a race-based scholarship.
The university’s website shows it offers its “Norton-Textra Endowed Scholarship for Minority Students in English” only to African-American students pursuing English degrees, which the Equal Protection Project (EPP) alleges violates federal civil rights statutes and the Constitution’s equal protection guarantees.
“That a racially discriminatory scholarship exists at a major public university in a deeply ‘red’ state is surprising,” EPP founder William A. Jacobson told the DCNF. “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.”
READ:
OCR Complaint – University of Alabama by Katelynn Richardson
The scholarship was established “by Dr. Myron Tuman, the W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., and proceeds from the 1991 Fiesta Bowl,” according to an award description. This year’s application deadline is May 31.
The university’s general scholarship application automatically considers students for the awards for which they are eligible, according to the complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
“Here, the race- and national origin-based eligibility criteria are mechanically applied,” the complaint states. “If applicants do not meet the racial and ethnic requirements, they are automatically disqualified from eligibility for the scholarship, respectively.”
“Because UA’s racial and/or ethnicity-based requirements for this scholarship is presumptively invalid, and since there is no compelling government justification for such invidious discrimination, its use of such criteria violates state and federal civil rights statutes and constitutional equal protection guarantees,” the complaint continues.
EPP alleges the scholarship violates both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The group has filed “almost 100 cases challenging over 300 discriminatory scholarships and programs,” according to Jacobson.
“The Equal Protection Project calls on the senior administration of UA to make sure nondiscrimination standards are upheld throughout the institution,” Jacobson said.
The University of Alabama did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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