Civil Rights Complaint Filed Over Claremont Colleges Diversity Scholarships

Courtyard at Scripps College. Photo credit: Lure Photography.

The Equal Protection Project filed a Federal Civil Rights Complaint on Aug. 28 with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), alleging that a number of programs and scholarships at the Claremont Colleges violate Titles VI and IX of the Civil Rights Act.

The 23-page complaint lists 14 different scholarships and programs available to students at Claremont Graduate University and Claremont McKenna, Pomona, Pitzer, Harvey Mudd, and Scripps Colleges on the basis of their race, ethnic background, or gender. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin by any institution or program receiving federal financial assistance, while Title IX similarly prohibits sex-based discrimination.

The listed programs include the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, a competitive program for undergraduate students wishing to pursue a Ph.D. in the humanities or related fields. The MMUF is offered by each Claremont College and other institutions nationwide.

Previously, Pomona’s Career Development Office website described the MMUF as available to “to underrepresented students.” Since July, the mention of "underrepresented students” has been removed. 

“We are aware of a complaint filed with the OCR and are currently reviewing its contents,” a representative of Pomona said in a statement to the Independent. “While it would be inappropriate to comment on the specifics at this time, Pomona College reaffirms its commitment to fair and equitable programs as a central component of its educational mission.”

The Mellon Foundation, which endows the MMUF, did not respond to a request for comment.

In addition to the MMUF, the complaint identifies eight scholarships at Pitzer College, four at Claremont Graduate University, and one program at Harvey Mudd College. The complaint cites archived versions of the schools’ websites, where “discriminatory requirements” designated who could receive the scholarships. 

The Pitzer programs cited include a scholarship awarded to “students of Middle Eastern descent or students who study the Middle East,” another whose criteria includes “any enrolled African American student with financial need and good academic standing,” and one for which “minority females” are “strongly preferred” candidates.

The four CGU scholarships listed in the complaint are the Black Scholars Award; the Ruth Roach English Award, given annually “to an African American student studying English”; a fellowship that “aids African American and Hispanic students who are pursuing degrees in any discipline at CGU”; and the Pat Soldano Fellowship for Women Leaders.

Like Pomona’s MMUF webpage, many of the scholarships and programs mentioned have had their descriptions changed in the last year, with mention of racial, ethnic, or sex-based eligibility requirements removed. Pitzer’s William Randolph Hearst Foundation Endowed Scholarship, which was previously reserved for “minority students with demonstrated financial need,” no longer mentions minority status, and now advertises admittance for “students based on demonstrated financial need.” Similarly, the Lisa Specht Endowment for Women of Pitzer College is now described as “provid[ing] scholarships for New Student Resources and need-based education aid” rather than specifying “support to female students.” 

The Harvey Mudd Women’s Inclusion in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics program is also singled out, though it does not appear to offer any scholarships or awards besides attendance to the high school summer program and a waiver for HMC’s application-fee. HMC’s website does not currently specify that candidates must be female, though an archived version of the page from December of 2024 includes the phrase “Interact with other college-bound women who share their passion for STEM,” which has since been replaced with “Interact with other college-bound students who share their passion for STEM.” Photos from a previous year also appear to capture a group of exclusively female participants. EPP argues in the complaint that the “program’s framing as a ‘Women’s STEM program’ and the promotional language clearly signals that the program is intended for women, and would dissuade males from applying or Harvey Mudd from seriously considering men.”

The Equal Protection Project (EPP) is a branch of the Legal Insurrection Foundation (LIF), founded and led by Cornell Law School professor and conservative blogger William A. Jacobson. The LIF was born out of Jacobson’s blog, “Legal Insurrection,” and has become a prominent conservative non-profit. Before the EPP, its flagship project was CriticalRace.org, an extensive database of Critical Race Theory programs at educational institutions, which describes itself as “a resource for parents and students concerned about how Critical Race Theory, and implementation of Critical Race Training, impacts education.” 

The EPP was launched in 2023 with the aim of shuttering Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs. A spokesperson for the organization described it as “the nation's leading civil rights group devoted to eliminating discriminatory programming, practices, and scholarships in higher education, having filed legal challenges to over 110 colleges and universities covering over 500 discriminatory programs and scholarships.” 

“The Claremont Colleges are among the most elite and highly-ranked liberal arts colleges in the nation. That race- and sex-based discriminatory scholarships exist at such highly ranked institutions is shocking and reflects how Critical Race Theory and its offshoots like Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, are deeply embedded in the campus culture,” said Jacobson in a statement to the Independent.

“We do not want these scholarships terminated, we want the discriminatory provisions removed. We want students to have access to the funding, but every student should have fair and equal opportunity for scholarships without regard to race, color, national origin, or sex.”

In addition to scholarships, EPP has previously challenged faculty hiring programs with potentially discriminatory criteria at other institutions. Jacobson did not say whether Claremont Colleges programs, including Pomona College’s Chau Mellon Fellowship, offered to pre- and post-doctoral graduate students who “must contribute to increasing the diversity” of the college, were being considered by the organization. Pomona, Scripps, CMC and Pitzer are members of the Consortium for Faculty Diversity.

The complaint is the third filed with the OCR against Pomona College in the last two years, and the second lodged against Scripps College this year. The prior complaints alleged that the Colleges had failed to protect students and adequately respond to antisemitism and Islamophobia.

“As of this time, Scripps College has not been informed by the Office of Civil Rights that it has accepted or is investigating this complaint,” a Scripps representative told the Independent in an email. “The College is reviewing the matter closely to determine next steps.”

Representatives for CMC, HMC, Pitzer, and CGU did not respond to a request for comment.