Watchdog prof files Title IX complaint against UOregon over its exclusive 'emergency support fund' for trans students

Mark Perry, a Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, took action against the University of Oregon for its gender-affirming support fund.

Upon reading Campus Reform’s coverage of the fund, which sets aside money for transition-related expenses for transgender students, Perry filed a Title IX complaint against the school for discrimination on the basis of sexual and gender identity.

[RELATED: UPenn Women’s Center targeted in federal Title IX complaint]

“I allege that the LGBTQIA+ Student Emergency Fund for LGBTQIA+ students at the University of Oregon is an illegal violation of Title IX because it discriminates against non-LGBTQIA+ students on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity,” Perry explained.

“The message I am trying to send to colleges and universities is that federal civil rights laws protect all students including students in what are today’s preferred and favored groups on campus that include women, blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, BIPOCs, and LGBTQIAs as well as students in unpreferred and unfavored groups on campus including students who are male, white, Asian, heterosexuals and cisgender,” he added. “To provide emergency funding exclusively to just one group of students based on their sexual orientation or gender identity is unlawful, objectionable and offensive.”

[RELATED: WATCH: Title IX protects women. Keep it that way.]

Tthe University of Oregon (UO) offers a fund specifically for transgender-identified students to receive “gender-affirming resources.”

“The LGBTQIA+ Student Emergency Fund is an opportunity for LGBTQIA+ students at the University of Oregon to request emergency funding one time during each academic year to pay for items that impact their sexuality or gender identity,” according to the application.

The fund is designated for “trans, non-binary, and gender-expansive students at the University of Oregon,” to gain access to “emergency funding for financial support accessing gender-affirming resources, products, support, and care.” Although recipients of this fund do not receive tuition or textbook support, they are also encouraged to apply to the UO Basic Needs Assistance program.

Perry says he has also discovered similar funds at Georgia Tech and Otterbein University and has taken action against them as well. He also plans to take action against Rutgers University, Boise State, Indiana University, and other institutions with such programs.

In addition to being a Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, Perry is also a higher-education watchdog, full-time civil rights activist, a Senior Fellow Emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute, and a senior fellow at Do No Harm. He has filed 841 civil rights complaints against over 750 colleges and universities in the past four years. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened 370 investigations into his complaints and resolved 335 of them, the majority of them being resolved in his favor.

On July 13, 2023, Perry updated Campus Reform that his complaint had made traction.

“[Today] I was notified by the Seattle Office for Civil Rights that it is opening a federal civil rights investigation of the University of Oregon for its Gender-Affirming Support Fund/LGBTQIA+ Student Emergency Fund, which I allege is a violation of Title IX,” Perry stated, thanking Campus Reform for covering the story.