University Of Rhode Island Hit With Civil Rights Complaint Over Discriminatory Scholarships

The University of Rhode Island was hit with a federal civil rights complaint over more than 50 scholarship opportunities that discriminate against students on the basis of their race and sex.

The complaint, filed to the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, alleges that the university engaged in “pervasive and systemic” discrimination via its scholarship programs, which use racial and sexual characteristics in their selection criteria.

“We bring this civil rights complaint against the University of Rhode Island (“URI”) for offering, promoting and administering fifty-one (51) student scholarships that discriminate based on race and/or sex,” reads the complaint from the Equal Protection Project.

“The discrimination is so pervasive and systematic that urgent action by OCR is needed before the scholarships come up for reapplication in the spring 2025 semester.”

One of the scholarships listed in the complaint, the Bank of America Scholarship, is designated for “two four-year scholarships for minority students, preferably one male and one female.” There’s also the Citizens Bank Scholarship, which similarly states that it “will be awarded to minority students with financial need who live in Rhode Island.”

“The discrimination in scholarships at URI is shocking in its breadth, far exceeding any other university we have seen at the Equal Protection Project,” the organization’s founder, William A. Jacobson, told The Daily Wire. “URI does not even try to hide the discriminatory barriers, they are all detailed on the URI website.”

The scholarships from Bank of America and Citizens Bank are just two of the 51 scholarships that the Equal Protection Act have called to the attention of the Office of Civil Rights.

There’s also the Dr. Robert L. Carothers Student Leadership Endowment, which “shall provide annual scholarships to URI students of color who provide leadership in broad university programs,” while the Deborah Godfrey Brown Nursing Scholarship will go to “undergraduate minority students possessing a strong passion for a career in clinical nursing.”

“The endowment shall be used to fund a scholarship annually for a Hispanic or African American male undergraduate student,” reads the description of yet another scholarship.

“In Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co., Justice Scalia aptly noted that ‘discrimination on the  basis of race is illegal, immoral, unconstitutional, inherently wrong and destructive of a democratic society,’” the complaint points out. “This is true regardless of which race suffers –  discrimination against white applicants is just as unlawful as discrimination against black or other non-white applicants.”

Some scholarships are only open to women. The Dr. M. Beverly Swan Scholarship Endowment, for example, “shall be awarded to a female student majoring in English,” while the Gene Bucci Family Scholarship is reserved for a female student studying  Civil Engineering who is a Rhode Island resident.

Jacobson is now urging the University of Rhode Island to be investigated over the wide array of discriminatory scholarships.

“We call upon OCR, both under the current leadership and the incoming Trump administration leadership, to prioritize the investigation of URI in light of the systematic discrimination taking place.”

Read the complaint filed by the Equal Protection Project.