U of Vermont offers potentially-illegal race-restricted scholarship to ‘BIPOC,’ ‘POC’ applicants
The scholarship ‘is open to those who identify as BIPOC, POC, and/or PGM.’
‘This is state action in violation of the Equal Protection Clause,’ one lawyer said.
The University of Vermont is searching for applicants for a postdoctoral program that limits admissions on the basis of race.
The American Political Science Association published the application posting, which is no longer available on the group’s website, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
The Henderson-Harris Post-Doctoral Fellowship “lasts for a period of up to two years, with the expectation that the Fellow will transition to a tenure-track Assistant Professor position at the completion of the Fellowship,” according to a position announcement from UV.
[RELATED: UToledo reworking race-based scholarships to comply with SCOTUS affirmative action ruling]
The fellowship “is open to those who identify as BIPOC, POC, and/or PGM,” and the school will prioritize applicants whose work “focuses on the themes of inequality and/or exclusion, in either a domestic or global context.”
“We define these themes very broadly— they include economic and political inequalities, gender hierarchies, racial and ethnic inequality or exclusion, the disparate burdens of environmental pollution, and more. Candidates should have the capacity to teach and engage students in the subfield of political theory,” UV writes.
The posting has drawn controversy, with some stating that excluding applicants on the basis of their race is illegal. Adam Mortara, who led the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case, said: “This is state action in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.”
A UVZ spokesperson wrote to Campus Reform, confirming that “[t]he posting in question has been removed.”
Several other colleges and universities have faced challenges and pushback over race-based scholarships and programs.
This summer, the University of Missouri opened certain scholarships to applicants from all races, upsetting donors who desired to limit scholarship entry by the applicant’s race.
[RELATED: Notre Dame prof laments court victory for race neutrality]
On Sept. 3, the Equal Protection Project (EPP) issued a legal challenge to the University of California, Berkeley, for excluding non-“Latinx/Hispanic individuals” from its Haas Thrive Fellows Program. The EPP started a similar challenge against scholarships at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in August.
This August, Western Michigan University ended a medical scholarship that was only open to applicants who identified as “African American/Black, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian/Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander,” after facing a complaint from the group Do No Harm.
