Dec 26, 2024 Story by: Editor
A civil rights complaint has been lodged against Northern Illinois University (NIU) over two programs allegedly restricted to Black applicants.
The complaint focuses on the university’s Black Student Achievement Program and Black Male Initiative, both overseen by NIU’s Center for Black Studies.
The Equal Protection Project, an initiative of the conservative watchdog group Legal Insurrection Foundation, submitted the complaint on November 25 to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
The project describes its mission as opposing “discrimination done in the name of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” and advocating for the “fair treatment of all persons without regard to race or ethnicity.”
According to the complaint, these programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Titles VI and IX of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by allegedly discriminating based on race and ethnicity. Additionally, the Black Male Initiative is claimed to discriminate based on sex.
The Black Student Achievement Program’s webpage states that it aims to “support the retention and graduation of Black identified students” through academic support, mentoring, and personal assistance. The Black Male Initiative’s purpose, as outlined on its webpage, is to help “collegiate Black males achieve their academic, social, and personal goals” while pursuing their degrees.
Cornell Law School professor and Legal Insurrection Foundation founder William Jacobson argued that the programs’ descriptions indicate they are “inherently exclusionary.”
“Take a reasonable student standard,” Jacobson said in a telephone interview. “What would a reasonable student looking at that think?”
“We think that at least upon the evidence we gathered as of the time of the complaint a reasonable student looking at the…Black Male Initiative would understand that it is for Black males only.”
“A person looking at the Black Student Achievement Program would understand it’s for Black students,” he added.
“We don’t think there’s any lack of clarity there,” Jacobson continued. “It violates the law. It violates the Constitution. And it violates Northern Illinois’ own rules.”
The College Fix reached out to the interim co-directors of NIU’s Center for Black Studies, T. Ajewole Duckett and Christopher Mitchell, for comments. Duckett replied, indicating the inquiry had been forwarded to a marketing and communications contact. However, no further response was received by the time of publication.
Jacobson explained that the next steps depend on the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
“The first determination they will have to make is whether to open a formal investigation,” he said, noting that the duration of such investigations varies. “Sometimes you hear back in two or three weeks. Sometimes things sit for six or twelve months or longer.”
He added, “It is fairly routine for them to reach out to the school to see if the school wants to resolve [the complaint] prior to them making a decision.”
The Equal Protection Project has filed similar complaints against institutions including North Central University, Indiana University, and Ithaca City School District.
“In about half of the cases we filed,” Jacobson said, “the school has changed their program either based on the negative publicity or as part of a resolution with the OCR.”
While not prescriptive, Jacobson suggested that modifying the names and eligibility criteria of the Black Student Achievement Program and Black Male Initiative would address the issues raised in the complaint.
“Since the complaints we write only address very open and clear discrimination, most schools don’t want to defend it,” he noted.
When asked about the potential influence of recent elections on the Department of Education’s handling of the complaint, Jacobson commented, “In theory, it should be irrelevant. In theory, the enforcement of the anti-discrimination laws should be the same under both administrations.”
“But, I think the reality is that…the incoming Trump administration has made very clear that DEI and DEI discrimination is something they’re going to focus on,” he added.
“Our hope,” Jacobson concluded, “is that the current OCR will take this seriously and quickly open the investigation.” Source: The College Fix
