From Legal Insurrection:
Our Civil Rights Complaint to the Department of Justice involves at least seventy-seven (77) scholarships and programs across seven institutions, including the flagship University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Posted by William A. Jacobson
Our Equal Protection Project has challenged over 250 institutions regarding over 700 discriminatory programs and scholarships.
In our most recent filing, we filed a Civil Rights Complaint and request for investigation with the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice regarding systematic discrimination within the Illinois public university system involving at least seventy-seven (77) scholarships and programs across seven institutions, including the flagship University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
From the Complaint:
We write to request that the Department of Justice open a prompt investigation into systematic discrimination within the Illinois public university system involving at least seventy-seven (77) scholarships and programs across seven institutions, including the flagship University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The open discrimination at state higher educational institutions based on race, color, or national origin in violation of Title VI, and on the basis of sex in violation of Title IX, requires federal action.
The scholarships and programs at each of seven public universities are documented in exhibits appended to this complaint as Exhibits A–G, respectively. Each exhibit lists the number of discriminatory programs or scholarships identified at the institution, along with screenshots, links, and archived links.
Exhibit A. University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign (38) (page 10)
Exhibit B. Illinois State University (4) (page 29)
Exhibit C. University of Illinois Springfield (13) (page 32)
Exhibit D. Eastern Illinois University (1) (page 34)
Exhibit E. Chicago State University (4) (page 35)
Exhibit F. University of Illinois Chicago (1) (page 37)
Exhibit G. Western Illinois University (16) (page 38)
We then have a short summary for each school. Here are excerpts:
The evidence supporting this complaint and reflecting the pattern of discrimination across public universities in Illinois is set forth in the Exhibits and is briefly summarized below.
A. University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign (UIUC) (38)
UIUC offers thirty-eight (38) university-administered scholarships and fellowships that discriminate based on race, ethnicity, national origin, and sex.1 As detailed in Exhibit A, these programs include dozens of awards limited to or preferring applicants identified as “minority,” African American, Latino/Latina, or of specific national or ethnic descent (including Czech, Lithuanian, Chinese, Japanese, and other ancestries), as well as scholarships reserved exclusively for male or female students. Several awards combine both race- and sex-based eligibility criteria, such as scholarships limited to “male minority” or “female minority” students. Collectively, these programs span multiple departments and academic disciplines and represent a systematic pattern of race- and sex-based restrictions embedded within UIUC’s academic infrastructure.
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C. University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) (13)
The University of Illinois Springfield maintains a coordinated set of scholarships administered through its Women and Gender Studies program that collectively give preference to female students. As outlined in Exhibit C, this group of thirteen (13) named scholarships is awarded through the Office of Financial Assistance and is limited by sex, with no individualized, sex-neutral eligibility framework. Together, these awards function as a consolidated scholarship regime favoring one sex across multiple memorial and organizational funds.
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G. Western Illinois University (16)
In February 2024, the Equal Protection Project challenged sixteen scholarships at Western Illinois University (“WIU”) with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR); that matter remains pending without action taken. As documented in Exhibit G, since that filing WIU has moved its scholarship listings behind a login requirement, limiting public access and preventing verification of whether the challenged scholarships remain active. See https://wiu.academicworks.com/users/sign_in [https://archive.is/wip/meGD2] (accessed December 16, 2025). We therefore request that, as part of this investigation, the Department of Justice act on the previously field OCR complaint and subpoena relevant records from WIU.
As we do in every complaint, we then discuss the law in detail and why diversity and other goals do not justify discrimination based on race, color, national origin, or sex. In conclusion, we ask:
The Department of Justice has the power and obligation to investigate the universities’ role in creating, funding, promoting, and administering these scholarships and programs—and, given their number, to determine whether Illinois state-level action is involved—and to impose whatever remedial relief is necessary to hold them accountable for unlawful conduct. This authority includes, if necessary, imposing fines, initiating administrative proceedings to suspend or terminate federal financial assistance, and pursuing judicial proceedings to enforce the rights of the United States under federal law. As the Supreme Court has observed, “[t]he way to stop discrimination … is to stop discriminating[.]” Parents Involved in Cmty. Sch. v. Seattle Sch. Dist. No. 1, 551 U.S. 701, 748 (2007).
Accordingly, we respectfully request that the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division promptly open a formal investigation, impose such remedial relief as the law permits for the benefit of those who have been illegally excluded from the Illinois public universities’ various scholarships and programs based on discriminatory criteria, and ensure that all ongoing and future scholarships and programming comport with the Constitution and federal civil rights laws.
