Professor takes on colleges that discriminate against White students

A professor is filing complaints with local civil rights offices as colleges allegedly violate Title VI in their student programming.

University of Michigan economics professor Mark Perry provided Campus Reform his complaint to the New York Office for Civil Rights, which states that Ithaca College’s Martin Luther King Scholar Program discriminates against students who are not racial minorities.  The scholar program application process stipulates that students “identify as a person of color” to be eligible.

In his complaint, Perry stated that the Office for Civil Rights “makes it very clear that race-based, racially exclusive programs like the MLK Scholar Program are illegal violations of Title VI’s prohibition of race-based discrimination.”

“In violation of Title VI, students ‘not of color’ are being excluded from participation in the MLK Scholars Program,” he continued. “They are being denied the educational benefits of the program, and they are being subjected to discrimination on the basis of race and color.”

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states that “no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

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Perry likewise found that various programs at Smith College discriminated on the basis of race. According to his complaint filed with the Boston Office for Civil Rights, the school’s “Emergency Fund for Students of Color” and “Bridge” program “discriminate on the basis of color.”

Perry told Campus Reform that Ithaca College’s programming represents “a clear violation of federal civil rights laws that puts the college’s federal funding in jeopardy.”

Citing a breach of Title IX’s prohibition “of sex discrimination for its single-sex, female-only, no males allowed BOLD Women’s Leadership Network” currently under investigation by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, Perry notes that his complaint is not the first against the college.

Perry added that Smith College offers “at least three racially exclusive, racially discriminatory programs that illegally discriminate on the basis of race and color in violation of Title VI’s prohibition of such discrimination.”

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Because their programs wrongly discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, Perry says that Smith College “will likely have to either discontinue those racially discriminatory programs or open those programs to all students, regardless of skin color.”

Campus Reform reached out to Ithaca College and Smith College for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @ajmunguia23