Another University Faces Trump Investigation Over ‘Preferences For Non-Whites’

The Trump administration launched an investigation into an Oregon university over multiple racially focused programs critics say run afoul of civil rights law, The Daily Wire has learned. 

The Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services will investigate accusations that the Portland-based Oregon Health and Science University offers programs with built-in “preferences for non-whites.” The investigation comes after a complaint from the Equal Protection Project, an organization devoted to ensuring people of all races are treated fairly. 

HHS told the Equal Protection Project last week that it had “determined that this office has jurisdiction over your allegations” and that it “will initiate an investigation,” according to a letter obtained by The Daily Wire. The letter added that when HHS “has reached a determination regarding your complaint, we will advise you of our findings.”

Oregon Health and Science University recently announced that it received over $400 million in federal research grants for 2026.

The complaint from the Equal Protection Project took issue with multiple programs offered by the university, including its Jump Start Program, Equity Research Program, Center for Learner Diversity and Inclusion, On Track OHSU, Pay it Forward Mentorship Program, and HealthE STEPS Nursing Workforce Diversity Scholarships.

The Jump Start Program is designed for post=baccalaureate scholars to gain research experience. Those who are encouraged to apply are those defined as “underrepresented in research,” including “those who identify as minorities.” 

Similarly, the Equity Research Program is for those who come from an “underrepresented minority group” or have another economic hardship. The university’s Center for Learner Diversity and Inclusion “creates programs to advance the academic, career and personal development of underrepresented minority and disadvantaged students.”

The Daily Wire reached out to Oregon Health and Science University for comment on the investigation. 

Cornell Law School Professor William Jacobson, the founder of the Equal Protection Project, told The Daily Wire that the university was deterring people from applying for certain opportunities because they were advertising them for “being for a certain race or a certain ethnicity.” He said he would like to see the programs reformed, not eliminated. 

“Our goal for every time I challenge a program or a scholarship or goal is not to terminate the program or scholarship, it’s to terminate the discriminatory aspects of it,” Jacobson told The Daily Wire. “Ideally for us they would have to rework these scholarships and programs, and they would have to eliminate the racial and ethnic descriptors as to who it’s intended for, and they would have to truly, in real life, open it up to everybody.”

The Trump administration has taken action against racially focused DEI programs, opening up similar investigations into other entities like Arizona State University and the University of California system.