By Liam Knox
The Education Departmentâs Office for Civil Rights launched investigations into 51 colleges on Friday, accusing them of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and flouting guidance put forth in the departmentâs Dear Colleague letter last month, which warned colleges that all race-conscious programs and policies would be considered unlawful.
âThe Department is working to reorient civil rights enforcement to ensure all students are protected from illegal discrimination,â Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote in a statement. âTodayâs announcement expands our efforts to ensure universities are not discriminating against their students based on race and race stereotypes.â
According to the departmentâs statement, all but six of the investigations revolve around collegesâ partnerships with or support for The PhD Project, a nonprofit organization that connects prospective business doctoral candidates from underrepresented backgrounds with academic networks and hosts recruitment events for business school faculty. In its statement, the Education Department said the organization âlimits eligibility based on the race of participants.â
A spokesperson for the PhD Project told Inside Higher Ed the organization works âto create a broader talent pipeline of current and future business leaders ⊠through networking, mentorship, and unique events.â
The spokesperson also said they changed their membership requirements âthis yearâ to include âanyone who shares that vision,â but did not say exactly when the change was made. Snapshots of the organizationâs website, captured on the Wayback Machine, show different language as recently as two weeks ago, including a section on the homepage titled âWe Believe Inclusion Is Critical,â which has since been scrubbed.
The OCR is also investigating five additional colleges for allegedly using race in scholarship eligibility requirements. One institution, the department said, was included for âadministering a program that segregates students on the basis of race.â
Representatives for the Education Department did not respond to multiple questions from Inside Higher Ed in time for publication.
Inside Higher Ed also contacted the two dozen institutions under investigation, and their responses varied. The University of Wisconsin at Madison and Carnegie Mellon University said they had yet to be formally notified of any complaint by the OCR and were awaiting more information to determine how to comply with an investigation.
A spokesperson for the University of Notre Dame, which is still listed as a PhD Project partner, said the university âfollows the law and in no way practices or condones discrimination.â
âAs a Catholic university, we are fully committed to defending the dignity of every human person and ensuring that every person can flourish,â the spokesperson added.
At least one university on the list has already terminated its partnership with the PhD Project. A spokesperson for Arizona State University said the business school âwould not be supporting [faculty] travel to the upcoming PhD Project Conference.â
âThe school also this year is not financially supporting the PhD Project organization,â the spokesperson added.
A spokesperson for Ithaca College, one of the five institutions accused of limiting scholarship eligibility based on race, denied that the scholarships the department cited violated Title VI. The department targeted two scholarships, the spokesperson said: the African Latino Society Memorial Scholarship and the Rashad G. Richardson âI Can Achieveâ Memorial Scholarship. Both recognize students who work with the collegeâs BIPOC Unity Center but donât list any racial eligibility requirements on their respective webpages.
The Dear Colleague letter released by the OCR last month aimed to greatly expand the scope of the Supreme Courtâs affirmative action ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from one squarely focused on the policies and practices of admission offices to a sweeping decree on the illegality of all educational programs that consider race.
In its aftermath, colleges have struggled to understand how to comply with such a broad mandateâor whether they are even legally required to. Many have made surface-level changes, altering the names of programs and scrubbing websites of language associated with diversity, equity and inclusion. Some have gone further, eliminating DEI offices, shuttering residential housing for student groups or cutting race-based scholarships.
Jon Fansmith, senior vice president of government relations and national engagement at the American Council on Education, said the investigations are âcause for concernâ among higher ed institutions that may have thought they were in compliance with the Dear Colleague letter. But he said institutions shouldnât panic yet.
âThis is very clearly [the administrationâs] first effort to try and enforce their interpretation of SFFA, as opposed to what most legal scholars accept that case means,â Fansmith said. âI think that schools understand, especially post-SFFA, what constitutes an impermissible benefit to a student based on race ⊠it seems to me that they will probably be on solid ground defending their actions in these cases.â
Recruitment in the Crosshairs
The PhD Project has been a target of conservative activists in the past. In January, Christopher Rufoâa stalwart anti-DEI crusader whom Florida governor Ron DeSantis appointed to the board of New College of Florida in 2023âbrought attention to institutions attending the organizationâs annual recruiting conference.
In a tweet, Rufo showed screenshots of the organizationâs eligibility requirements for attendance, which stated that applicants had to be Black, Hispanic or Indigenous. Shortly after, Texas A&M University announced it would not send business faculty to the conference, following a threat by Texas governor Greg Abbott to fire the university president. Rufo did not respond to Inside Higher Edâs request for comment.
On Friday morning, the PhD Project website included a list of all university partners, accessible via drop-down menu. By that evening, the list had disappeared from the site. A spokesperson for the organization did not say why it was removed.
Inside Higher Ed cataloged the list before its removal. Of the 45 institutions that the department alleges violated civil rights by partnering with the PhD Project, 31 were listed as partners on the organizationâs website Friday morning, including ASU. Itâs not apparent what connection the other 14 institutions have to the PhD Project, and the Education Department did not respond to requests for clarification. But more than half of the 97 U.S. partner colleges the organization had listed on its website are not included in the OCRâs investigation. Itâs unclear why some PhD Project partners are under investigation while others are not.
A spokesperson for Boise State University, which is under OCR investigation but not on the PhD Projectâs list of partners, told Inside Higher Ed the institution is âworking with our general counselâs office to look into the matter.â A spokesperson for the California State University system, which has two campuses under investigationâCal State San Bernardino and Cal Poly Humboldtâsaid the system âcontinues to comply with long-standing applicable federal and state laws.â A spokesperson from the University of North Texas, also under investigation, said the university is âfully cooperatingâ with investigations but is ânot affiliated with the PhD Project.â
The PhD Projectâs annual conference is set to start next week in Chicago. A spokesperson for the organization did not say how many universities have pulled their support for attendees, or if theyâd seen an uptick in requests to cancel registrations.
Fansmith said that initiatives to recruit a more diverse applicant pool shouldnât be viewed as discriminatoryâespecially in academic fields that have struggled to diversify. Only 35 percent of doctoral candidates in business, and 26 percent of business school faculty, are people of color, according to a 2023 report from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
âThereâs lots of admissions initiatives seeking to put institutions in front of groups of students so they become aware of the programs they offer. Those are not discriminatory,â Fansmith said. âThe reason these programs exist is because there are categories of students who are underrepresented in many fields ⊠It would be a shame to see schools walk away from them.â