University retracts race-based scholarship from 300 students after SCOTUS ruling, then reinstates
Western Illinois University originally scrapped a $1000 race-based scholarship for students of color in light of the Supreme Court banning affirmative action in college admissions.
Earlier this month, Western Illinois University announced to around 300 students that they would not be receiving a $1000 scholarship that they had been awarded.
The scholarship was only offered to incoming students of color, and according to a report by WBEZ Chicago, was put in limbo by the Supreme Court ruling on June 29 which banned race preferences in college admissions.
However, the university soon reinstated the scholarship while waiting on guidance from the Department of Education.
The president of the university, Dr. Guiyou Huang, Ph.D, issued a statement immediately following the Supreme Court ruling announcing that the university would fully comply with the guidance they receive from “education agencies.”
“While we are still determining whether adjustments in our current policies are required,” Dr. Huang said at the time. “We will continue to support all students’ ability to secure a college degree in an environment that celebrates diversity and inclusion.
Campus Reform reached out to the university for comment on why the specific race-based scholarship was singled out.
“[The scholarship was] our JIDE (Justice, Inclusion, Diversity, & Equity) Scholarship, which is solely based on race with no other criteria,” said Alisha Looney, Interim Assistant Vice President of University Communications. “Changes will likely need to be made, and we originally did not want to bring students to Western with the promise of a scholarship that we could not guarantee past this first semester.”
The university appears set to modify criteria for the scholarship in the future.
“After careful consideration and communication,” Looney said, “we have decided to offer this to the students this semester with the goal of continuing to improve and modify our financial aid package to best serve our students and mitigate their financial burden.”
Other scholarships at the university that use race or minority status as criteria, but not exclusively, include the QC Minority Scholarship, The Black Alumni Committee Scholarship, The Roy Shepard Scholarship, the Dr. George E. Ayers Scholarship, the Michael J. Litwin Scholarship, the Minority Achievement Scholarship, and the Dr. Essie Manuel Rutledge Scholarship in African American Studies.
[RELATED: NAACP calls on colleges to pledge ‘Diversity No Matter What’ following SCOTUS ruling]
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has already challenged admissions scholarships in Missouri colleges and universities, citing the Supreme Court decision. He sent out a letter shortly after the ruling demanding state universities comply with the law.
“All Missouri programs that make admitting decisions by disfavoring individuals based on race—not just college admissions, but also scholarships, employment, law reviews, etc.—must immediately adopt race-blind standards,” he said.
It is possible that other states will follow suit in clarifying the law, as the president of the University of Kentucky recently suggested that they should end race-based scholarships, and the Republican speaker of the General Assembly in Wisconsin has alluded to upcoming legislation that could do the same in his state.
