Conservative Legal Group Challenges University of Oregon Scholarships

Four scholarships at the University of Oregon are under fire from the Equal Protection Project, a conservative legal group that is challenging universities nationwide for considering race or gender when issuing such awards.

The EPP filed a complaint March 4 with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, alleging two UO scholarships violated Title VI by prioritizing students for scholarships based on their race, and two others violated Title IX by being open only to women. “The Office for Civil Rights has the power…to impose whatever remedial relief is necessary to hold [UO] accountable for that unlawful conduct,” wrote EPP attorney and founder William Jacobson.

In the month since, three of the scholarships remain intact, but UO appears to have changed eligibility requirements for the Andrea Gellatly Memorial Scholarship. The $1,000 scholarship, originally awarded to “a woman beginning her final year” at the Clark Honors College, is now for “a student beginning the final year.” It’s not immediately clear if the changing of requirements was in response to the EPP complaint.

The complaint comes at a time when UO, among dozens of other universities, is under federal investigation for alleged race-based discrimination. In a Feb. 14 letter, the DOE threatened to withhold federal funding from universities that didn’t comply with eliminating race-based scholarships and programs.

UO spokesman Eric Howald says the university has not received official notification of a filed complaint but will respond if a review is opened.

“We have recently reviewed all of our practices,” Howald says, “and believe that the University of Oregon is in compliance with the law.”