It’s amazing that this sort of thing still goes on at all. It seems like some schools do it until they get called out for it.

FOX News reports:

UMinn Law School will no longer give preference to minorities for fellowship: ‘Win for civil rights’

A University of Minnesota Law School diversity fellowship will now give equal consideration to White and male applicants following a civil rights complaint.

According to The College Fix, the application for a full-ride diversity fellowship sponsored by the Jones Day law firm has been changed after education watchdog Adam Kissel filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

Kissel filed the complaint in September 2023 and alleged the fellowship discriminated based on sex and race because the application gave preference to women and students of color.

A March 25 memo from the OCR obtained by The College Fix noted that the complaint had been resolved and closed after the university told the office the fellowship criteria “does not include a preference based on race or sex.”

Instead, recipients will be chosen “based on their commitment to enhancing diversity and inclusion” and “whose life experiences bring unique, extraordinary, or other fresh perspective to campus, including first generation college graduate and students from socioeconomically challenged backgrounds.’”

Kissel told The College Fix that the news was “a win for civil rights” but said the change is likely “just whitewashing” because administrators “still understand the purpose of the program is to help minority students, otherwise it would not exist.”

He said the development is noteworthy because it suggests the OCR “now entertains even unintentional disparate impact claims as possible civil rights violations.”

“In other words, the intended outcome is that minority students, but few to no non-minority students, get the advantages of the program. That difference in outcome by race is intended. Even if that outcome were unintended, the program would still risk a finding that it is out of compliance with Title VI,” Kissel said.

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