White Students Excluded From Scholarship Program Sue Biden-Harris Admin

Two college students sued the Biden-Harris administration on Wednesday, saying that the Department of Education is illegally denying them eligibility for a scholarship program because they are white. 

The lawsuit was filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL). WILL filed the suit on behalf of University of Wisconsin-Madison student Benjamin Rothove, University of North Dakota student Avery Durfee, and the Young America’s Foundation. The suit says that the Education Department’s $60 million Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program violates the equal protection rights of white, Asian, Jewish, and Arab students. According to the program’s stipulations, applicants must be from a group “underrepresented” in graduate education, or else be a low-income, first-generation college student. 

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota, asks a judge to block the Biden admin from enforcing any race-based eligibility requirements and to inform all applicable institutions that such qualifications are unconstitutional. According to a copy of the suit shared with The Daily Wire, both Rothove and Durfee received emails from their colleges telling them they couldn’t apply for the McNair scholarship because they were white.

“We want this case to set the precedent that when a student is in college there can’t be any differing treatment of the student based on race. There can’t be any privileges given or advantages or benefits at all,” WILL deputy counsel Dan Lennington told The Daily Wire on Wednesday. “We think this is a very broad attack on the Biden-Harris administration’s plan to push DEI into our colleges even further.” 

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The McNair program provides thousands of dollars in stipends to recipients and helps match students with internships, mentoring programs, and research opportunities.

While certain low-income white and Asian students could get the McNair scholarship, no such barriers exist for black and Hispanic students. The federal definition of an underrepresented group for graduate programs includes black, Hispanic, American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiians, and Native American Pacific Islanders. 

Lennington said that the Biden-Harris administration was effectively telling students who aren’t black or Hispanic they were not needed or wanted in graduate education. 

“I’ve worked unbelievably hard throughout my undergraduate career and have wanted to go to graduate school my entire life,” Durfee said in a statement shared with The Daily Wire. “Being told that I didn’t qualify for the McNair program because I’m white seemed completely wrong. This sends the wrong message to young Americans everywhere.”

Young America’s Foundation President and former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker said his group was proud to be involved in the legal challenge.

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“Denying a student the chance to compete for a scholarship based on their skin color is not only discriminatory but also demeaning and unconstitutional,” he said. “At YAF, we proudly defend our students’ right to be judged on their merit and abilities, not on race.”

Lennington told The Daily Wire that there were dozens of race-based programs embedded in the federal government that must be challenged in light of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn affirmative action.

“We are going to sue over [the programs] one at a time,” he said. “We are going have to dismantle it brick by brick.”