By Philip Joens, Des Moines Register
AI-assisted summary
- The Equal Protection Project filed a federal civil rights complaint against Drake University, alleging its Crew Scholars Program unlawfully excludes White students.
- The complaint argues the program violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by restricting eligibility based on race.
- The Equal Protection Project has filed similar complaints against other universities nationwide, including the University of Northern Iowa.
A group that opposes race-based education policies is targeting Des Moines’ Drake University with a federal civil rights complaint, alleging White students are unlawfully barred from its Crew Scholars Program for students of color.
The Equal Protection Project, a conservative nonprofit headed by Cornell University clinical law professor William Jacobson, has filed similar actions against colleges and universities across the country, including the University of Northern Iowa.
The action comes as the Trump administration and, in Iowa, the Republican-run state government seek root out diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and race- and gender-based based preferences and academic programs in higher education, which they view as discriminatory and divisive.
According to the complaint against Drake, filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, the private university’s website described the Crew Scholars Program as providing $500 scholarships to “to incoming domestic students of color in any major.”
It said the program violates Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 because “it conditions eligibility for participation based on a student’s race.” Title VI prohibits “exclusion from participation in, denial of benefits of, and discrimination under federally assisted programs on ground(s) of race, color or national origin.”
The law allows the government to cancel any federal expenditures, such as grants, loans and contracts, awarded to institutions found to be in violation of Title VI. Most U.S. higher education institutions receive various forms of federal aid, and the Equal Protection Project says Drake is among them.
The complaint also alleges Drake is violating its own nondiscrimination policy.
Drake spokesperson Ashton Hockman said that the university had not heard from the Education Department and could not comment. Viewed on April 22 after the filing of the complaint, the program’s website read, “The Crew Scholars Program at Drake is open to incoming domestic students of any major,” without the alleged reference to students of color.
Drake has made public commitment to DEI
As DEI has come under attack, many colleges and universities have backtracked from DEI commitments. Numerous public universities in Republican-majority states, including Iowa, have been required under new laws to dismantle their programs. But Drake has remained committed to its DEI policy.
“If you just think about the educational experience itself, it benefits greatly from having a wide array of persons in a classroom sharing different viewpoints that are based upon the experience that they have coming from the communities that they come from,” Drake President Marty Martintold WHO-TV on April 9. “And for Drake, that means recruiting nationally, and we want to ensure that the students that we’re recruiting feel welcomed here, and many of them come with diverse backgrounds.”
In 2024 Drake won the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award from education trade publication Insight into Diversity, which changed its name to Insight into Academia April 3. Drake also appointed an associate provost for campus equity, Terrance Pendleton, to oversee programs and initiatives it says create a culture of inclusion.
In February, Pendleton told Drake’s student newspaper, the Times-Delphic, that the university was still committed to creating an inclusive culture.
But in an interview following the filing of the civil rights complaint, Jacobson contended that a lack of inclusivity is at the root of the problem with the Crew Scholars Program. It would not be discriminatory, he said, “If it was truly open to everyone, and was in fact open to everyone.”
“The mere promotion of it is a violation of the law akin to hanging a sign on your store door saying ‘No Blacks allowed,’ ‘No Whites allowed’ ‘No Hispanics allowed,’” he said. “Even if you don’t physically bar them at the door, the hanging of such a sign would be a violation of law.
“If this was a program that merely served people who are interested in diversity, but clearly open to everybody, both in terms of promotion and practice, then it would be OK,” he said.
Complaint against UNI list numerous alleged violations
The Equal Protection Project’s complaint against UNI, filed in January, lists 13 scholarships the university offers as being in violation of the law. In addition to citing what it said were Title VI violations, it alleged some aimed at female students violated the Civil Rights Law’s Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on gender.
“UNI cannot demonstrate that restricting scholarships based on race, color, or national origin serves any legitimate governmental purpose, let alone an extraordinary one,” the complaint said. “Restrictions that limit eligibility for scholarships based on sex are underinclusive, as they arbitrarily exclude students who would otherwise qualify.”
UNI in a statement to the Cedar Rapids Gazette at the time of the filing said it would not comment on a pending legal issue.
The complaint against Drake is not a lawsuit, but rather is an administrative proceeding within the Department of Education, Jacobson said.
The next step is for the department to determine if it will investigate Drake, he said.
In most cases, schools simply change their programs or scholarships to bring them into compliance, he said.
“In more than half the cases the schools change the program, change the eligibility,” he said. “It is very likely that the Department of Education will contact Drake. … Drake will make a decision whether it wants to defend this scholarship.”
If Drake indeed changed the wording about the Crew Scholars Program on its website, Jacobson said, “That to me is an admission of culpability. … But there would be no reason for them to almost instantaneously take down that language.”
The goal of the complaint is to get Drake to stop its “discriminatory behavior,” he said.
(This article was edited to update information.)
Philip Joens covers public safety, retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184 or [email protected].
Stay in the know with stories that matter — visit HolaAmericaNews.com for the latest news, culture, and community updates!
Facebook Comments