ACR Project Files Administrative Complaint with DOJ and ED, Challenging UC System’s “Hispanic Serving Institutions” Grant Program

The ACR Project filed an administrative complaint with the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education.  It challenges the  University of California-Hispanic Serving Institutions Doctoral Diversity Initiative. You can read the full administrative complaint, below.

UC defines California HSIs based on the racial composition of their enrolled students. The program makes UC money available to UC campuses hitting the required racial balance.  It allows other UC campuses to access such funds only if their professors partner with California HSIs (public or private) and share UC’s related funding with them. By design, UC would prefer that these UC funds flow to even private schools with preferred racial balances than solely to the faculty at Disqualified UC Campuses.

We argue that…

• This discriminates against schools based on their imputed race.
• This discriminates against students based on their races and those of their classmates.
• This discriminates against faculty based on the races of the students with which they have relationships through their campuses.
• That’s a UC “program” that violates Title VI.
• That–as an employment opportunity afforded and disafforded to faculty based on the races of students with which they have relationships–it also violates Title VII.

We suspect the Administration will agree.  DOJ recently determined that it could not defend the Constitutionality of a parallel federal program. Longstanding case law makes clear both that: (a) the relevant constraint on federal power is coextensive with the requirements of the equal protection clause; and (b) Title VI prohibits at least all discrimination the equal protection clause does. This leaves no ambiguity: the program is illegal.

Accordingly, we have asked the Departments to investigate and to force UC to comply with these foundational federal nondiscrimination laws.