The nonprofit Defending Education (DE) filed a complaint against the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) for offering a scholarship that allegedly discriminates on the basis of race, in violation of federal civil rights law.
As noted by The Daily Wire, Defending Education filed the complaint on April 9, accusing UC Berkeley of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
“DE brings this complaint as an interested third-party organization with members who are parents of students throughout the country,” the organization stated. “DE and its members oppose, among other things, discrimination on the basis of race in America’s K-12 schools and institutions of higher education.”
The organization specifically highlighted a $10,000 annual scholarship that is granted to “Environmentalists of Color,” which now is listed as the “Rooted in Joy” scholarship on the university’s website.
The award, offered through UC Berkeley’s Student Environmental Resource Center (SERC), has a web page that describes the application process and objectives. One purpose of the scholarship is to “[b]uild radically inclusive social and environmental justice spaces on campus.”
Another objective is to “[f]inancially support passionate students working in the intersection of communities of color and the environmental field at UC Berkeley.”
In its complaint, Defending Education cited the Department of Education’s warning to universities that receive federal funding, which clarifies that racially discriminatory scholarships violate federal law.
“Federal law thus prohibits covered entities from using race in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, [and] prizes,” the department stated in a Feb. 14 letter.
In its notice, the Education Department explicitly stated that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies have been used to introduce “racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming, and discipline.”
Despite this warning, UC Berkeley’s SERC states on its website that two of its values are “Equity and Inclusion.” The center says that it “provides environmental and social justice programming and resources to create a space that values the perspectives and narratives of marginalized and underrepresented students.”
As Campus Reform has reported, similar anti-discrimination complaints have been filed this year by the Equal Protection Project against schools such as the University of Rhode Island and the University of Oregon.
Campus Reform has contacted the University of California, Berkeley for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
