ACR Project Files Administrative Complaint with DOJ and ED, Challenging Host of Discriminatory Programs at Cal State Northridge

The ACR Project filed an administrative complaint with the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education.  It challenges a host of programs at Cal State Northridge which appear to illegally discriminate because of race, ethnicity, and sex. You can read the full administrative complaint, below.

Cal State Northridge is a public university, which receives in excess of $100 million annually from the federal government and employs orders of magnitude more than 15 people. These facts require it to comply with Title VI (barring discrimination by race and national origin), Title IX (barring sex discrimination), and Title VII (barring both in employment).

Nonetheless, the school: (a) maintains programs that seemingly define or prioritize beneficiaries by race, color, national origin, and sex; and (b) administers scholarships discriminating by national origin and sex.  These programs and scholarships do not appear to serve any compelling state interest or to carry any of the usual indicia of narrow tailoring.  For example, they appear to have no defined duration or measurable benchmarks.  They do not appear to fall within any statutory exceptions to Congress’s categorical prohibition on these kinds of demographic discrimination.

Meanwhile Cal State Northridge also sets express racial goals for its future workforce demography and appears to have made hiring decisions so at odds with the demography of the potential pool of qualified applicants as to raise serious concerns that the school has operationalized those “goals” through intentional discrimination.

We have asked the Departments to investigate these facts and to take all steps necessary to secure Cal State Northridge’s compliance with American law.