{"id":64230,"date":"2025-12-08T14:01:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T14:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/64230\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T14:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T14:01:12","slug":"exclusive-harvard-hit-with-fed-complaint-over-race-restricted-scholarship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/64230\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | Harvard hit with fed complaint over ‘race-restricted’ scholarship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harvard University on Sunday was slapped with a federal complaint <\/a>over a \u201crace-restricted\u201d scholarship program that is limited to students of color, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n

The complaint faults the Ivy League institution for actively promoting and supporting<\/a> the Union Scholars summer scholarship program, which is designated for \u201cstudents of color\u201d and gives 10 applicants a $4,800 stipend and $6,000 need-based assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat doesn\u2019t Harvard understand <\/a>about not discriminating\u00a0based on race?\u201d said William Jacobson, president and founder of the Equal Protection Project, a legal watchdog that filed the complaint, to The Post.<\/p>\n

Harvard University is under fire for a scholarship that is only open to students of color. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US Supreme Court told\u00a0Harvard\u00a0to stop<\/a>; now it\u2019s up to the Department of Justice to make Harvard stop,\u201d said Jacobson, an alum of Harvard.<\/p>\n

Harvard was at the center of a landmark case in 2023 when the US Supreme Court determined that affirmative-action programs for admission are unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

The Equal Protection Project filed its complaint about racism in the scholarship program with the Justice Department\u2019s Division of Civil Rights.<\/p>\n

The complaint comes against the backdrop of a broader Trump administration effort to pressure Harvard to scrap its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies, be more inclusive to conservatives and stamp out antisemitism on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe\u00a0Harvard\u00a0Union Scholars Program provides very valuable benefits to students, and it should be open without regard to race,\u201d Jacobson said.<\/p>\n

Technically, the Union Scholars program is administered by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, but the complaint contends that Harvard actively supports it.<\/p>\n

President Trump has overseen a crackdown on such polices at colleges and universities. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cHarvard\u00a0isn\u2019t a bystander; it hosts the orientation, provides support, and promotes the program,\u201d added Robert Fox, a lawyer for the Equal Protection Project.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy putting its name on a race-restricted opportunity,\u00a0Harvard\u00a0is engaging in unlawful discrimination.\u201d
AFSCME, the largest public sector trade union in the country, created the Union Scholars Program in 2003 in conjunction with Harvard Law School\u2019s Center for Labor and a Just Economy.<\/p>\n

Students in the program are expected to partake in a six-week \u201cfield placement on a union organizing campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvard University President Alan Garber has acknowledged the need to bring more conservatives to campus but has rejected President Trump\u2019s sweeping demands. Harvard University<\/p>\n

On one webpage<\/a> describing the effort, AFSCME calls it \u201ca summer internship program for students of color passionate about social justice and workers\u2019 rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

But The Equal Protection Project\u2019s 11-page complaint insists, \u201cThe Union Scholars Program is explicitly race-restricted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts eligibility requirements state that applicants must \u2018[b]e a college student of a historically marginalized community.\u2019 The phrase \u2018historically marginalized community\u2019 is often used as an alternative to \u2018underrepresented minority.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

William Jacobson\u2019s watchdog group has been filing complaints against colleges and universities engaged in discrimination. Fox News<\/p>\n

Applications for next year\u2019s program are still under way, with a Feb. 28, 2026, deadline.<\/p>\n

The Equal Protection Project, which\u00a0targets\u00a0discrimination in higher education, pointed to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which restricts institutions of higher education that deliberately discriminate on the basis of race from getting federal funds.<\/p>\n

The watchdog is calling on Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon and her team to probe whether Harvard\u2019s involvement in the Union Scholars Program is a Title XI violation.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsidering that Harvard litigated the issue of race-based admissions all the way to the Supreme Court and lost, prompt and aggressive DOJ action is warranted,\u201d the complaint added.<\/p>\n

Trump has threatened to cut off billions of dollars for research and other purposes from the elite school over its refusal to acquiesce to his demands to scrap its DEI and race-based policies.<\/p>\n

A Boston-based federal judge handed the school a massive victory in September after concluding the threats were illegal.<\/p>\n

Other elite schools such as Columbia University<\/a> have reached a deal with the Trump administration over its demands.<\/p>\n

Neither Harvard nor the AFSCME responded to Post requests for comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a\u00a0Harvard\u00a0Law School graduate,\u201d Jacobson said. \u201cI fully understand the arrogance and self-righteousness of the university.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut enough is enough when it comes to the use of race in admissions, whether to the university or to its programs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harvard University on Sunday was slapped with a federal complaint over a \u201crace-restricted\u201d scholarship program that is limited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[16471,153,16204,179,9,11,10,87,33635,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-64230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-discrimination","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-harvard","11":"tag-harvard-university","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-scholarships","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}