The two private Los Angeles-based universities face a complaint claiming they violated Title VI and Title II of the Civil Rights Act by hosting the Latino-only Youth Leadership Institute
The University of Southern California and Loyola Marymount University face a civil rights complaint for allegedly participating in and hosting a program for students who identify as Hispanic or Latino.
The Equal Protection Project has called for the U.S. Department of Education to investigate whether USC and LMU violated federal civil rights laws by participating in the Youth Leadership Institute, a free, college empowerment program for high-achieving Latino high school juniors.
The complaint, filed June 29, alleges the universities violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. Specifically, the EPP claims that by offering to host, provide speakers and on-campus housing for YLI events and participants, USC and LMU are excluding non-Latino students.
The complaint acknowledges that YLI is run by an outside non-profit, but claims USC and LMU materially support and participate in the program. By hosting and promoting the program, both universities are “legally liable for the discrimination that takes place on their campuses with their support through YLI,” according to the EPP’s civil rights complaint.
“That program discriminates on its face and unequivocally on the basis of national origin,” William Jacobson, president and founder of the EPP, said. “The universities get involved and potentially become responsible because they support it, they host it on their campuses, they provide all sorts of other facilities for it.”
In addition to Title VI violations, the complaint argues both universities are violating Title II of the Civil Rights Act by restricting on-campus accommodations for the program to only Latino students. Title II, which specifically prohibits discrimination in privately-owned establishments that serve the public, ensures all individuals can equally enjoy commercial and public facilities without segregation or exclusion.
Though Title VI may apply to institutions receiving any federal funding, private universities do not fall under Title II because it strictly applies to public accommodations operated by state or local governments, which USC and LMU are not.
Jacobson claims that, even though the universities are both private, they receive some federal funding and are therefore subject to federal civil rights law. Since the program is an outside nonprofit unrelated to the universities, if it had been run off the university campus, they wouldn’t be responsible, according to Jacobson. “Because the universities have voluntarily taken on the burden of promoting the programs, supporting the programs, hosting the programs, providing lodging for participants in the programs, they now fully adopted this as their program,” Jacobson said.
Scroll to continue reading
YLI is a program of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund that is designed for young student leaders to have the tools needed to apply to top universities, have full access to scholarship and financial aid opportunities and plan for academic and career success. LMU just hosted one in-person session of YLI June 24 through June 28 and USC is expected to host the next session July 15 through July 19.
Jacobson is calling on the DOE to investigate the alleged Title IV violations, while the Title II complaint would fall under the Department of Justice due to a new intra-agency partnership between the two federal agencies, which has changed the handling of federal civil rights complaints.
USC and LMU are not the first institutions to face federal civil rights violations. In May, the DOJ sued the University of California, Los Angeles for “deliberate indifference to race and national origin discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students” on campus and earlier this month, launched an investigation into four California public school districts for allegedly violating Title IX by teaching students about sexual orientation and gender ideology without notifying parents.