Department of Education opens inquiry after complaint against UC Berkeley Black, Latine student programs | Race and Diversity

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an inquiry yesterday evening into a complaint against UC Berkeley over allegations that five campus programs constitute racial discrimination and thereby violate federal law.

The Equal Protection Project, part of conservative advocacy group Legal Insurrection Foundation, filed the complaint Feb. 10. The programs being targeted are the African American Student Development Office, Black Resource Center, Latinx Student Resource Center, African American Initiative Scholarship and Lloyd A. Edwards Scholarship.

The EPP alleges these programs are only open to certain students based on race, either explicitly or through “strong racial signaling,” and thereby violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof said UC Berkeley has no comment on the complaint.

Timothy R. Snowball, a UC Berkeley alumnus and one of the lawyers who filed the complaint, said he finds these programs “pretty disturbing.”

“If the campus was to set up a white student development center … everyone would understand pretty much on its face that that’s a racist thing to do,” Snowball said.

However, ASUC Senator Sara Teran, who represents undocumented and immigrant students, characterized the EPP’s rhetoric as “harmful,” noting that minority students may face “different challenges” than white students.

“It’s not discriminating against anyone or going against the law of discriminating against certain individuals,” Teran said. “If anything, it’s supporting individuals that have historically been discriminated against.”

This complaint follows a previous Civil Rights Complaint that the EPP filed Dec. 1, 2025 with the Department of Justice’s OCR against 138 California public colleges and universities.

The complaint claims these institutions run undocumented student programs that “unlawfully discriminate against American-born students” and thereby constitute violations of Title VI and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Programs listed in the complaint include campus’s Undocumented Student Program, which provides comprehensive support services for undocumented students.

According to the EPP’s website, the Department of Education and Department of Justice’s offices for civil rights are evaluating these complaints for further action.

The EPP filed another Civil Rights Complaint on Jan. 18 with the Department of Education’s OCR against the UC Office of the President and California Community College Chancellor’s Office.The complaint alleges the Puente Project, a yearlong transitional program aiming to increase the number of “underrepresented” transfer students, benefits Latine students “to the exclusion of” non-Latine students.

The Department of Education’s OCR has opened a formal inquiry into the Puente Project, according to the EPP’s website.

In September 2024, the EPP also filed another complaint with the Department of Education’s OCR against the Haas Thrive Fellows program. The complaint alleged the program favored Latine students on the basis of national origin and identity. The Department of Education’s OCR dismissed the case as resolved after UC Berkeley opened the program to students of all backgrounds.

“My hopes are that (UC Berkeley administration) will stand firmly in support and solidarity with all of the groups that are being targeted,” Teran said. “I hope that the administration really takes a stance and shows what its true values are.”