Discrimination Complaint Filed Against UC for Latino Students Only Program

The University of California is facing a federal discrimination complaint over its longstanding academic support program for Latino students that tacitly excludes everyone else.

The Equal Protection Project filed the complaint earlier this year with the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights against the Puente Project, which supports California community college students seeking to transfer to state schools.

Puente Project students receive academic counseling and mentoring. They also are given special preferences when applying to University of California and California State University campuses.

The program was started in 1981 to support Mexican-American and Latino students. It currently receives $13 million in state funding annually.

Puente is Spanish for bridge. So it is pretty obvious who the program is aimed at.

The complaint says that the Puente Project violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the equal protection clause of the constitution by “signaling” that it is just for Latinos,  even though it is officially open to everybody.

The end result is that almost all participants in the program, which operates at  65 community colleges, is Latino.

Equal Protection Project founder Bill Jacobson explained to the California Globe that, “Signaling means that a program or scholarship is described in such a way that it is likely to dissuade some students from applying or participating based on race, color, national origin, or sex. Signaling in and of itself is a legal violation. Describing a program as intended for certain groups, yet throwing in a statement that it is open to everyone, does not absolve the school, and the Puente Project is a good example. It’s a program clearly described as intended for Hispanic students, and in fact almost all the participants are Hispanic. If a school also bars certain students based on protected factors, that would be a separate and independent violation. But in a signaling case you don’t expect students to be physically barred since they never bother to apply.”

Jacobson also said officials at many community colleges are often quite explicit that Puente Project is only for Latinos.

“While the Complaint focuses on the systemic way in which the Puente Project signals that it is for Hispanic/Latinx students, we use the example in the Complaint of Cerritos College, which is explicit in stating which demographic is targeted for inclusion: “Latinx Students”. Three of the four “Intended Goals/Outcomes” are exclusive to “Latinx Students”

• increase retention for Latinx student population

• Increase degree completion for Latinx student population

• Increase transfer rates for Latinx student population

“We also provide the example of Foothill college which says: “The Puente Program validates and focuses on the Latinx culture, history, and experience.” For this reason, the program attracts a majority of Latinx students. In addition, this program has been branded to attract Latinx students.

“These and other examples reflect a statewide program that signals it is intended for, marketed to, and attended by Hispanic/Latinx students.”

Similarly, the complaint says that, “The Puente Project as marketed and implemented is openly discriminatory in that it favors Hispanic/Latinx students to the exclusion of non-Hispanic/Latinx students. The fact that in some places the Puente Project describes its target demographic as “disadvantaged” or “underrepresented” is irrelevant in light of the clear racial signaling.”

Moreover, “the Puente Project employs strong exclusionary racial signaling that the program and benefits are intended for Hispanic/Latinx students. Such racial signaling itself is a violation of law, as it likely would cause a reasonable non-Hispanic/Latinx reader to conclude that the program is not intended for non-Hispanic/Latinx students, causing them to forego applying.”

So members of disfavored groups get the message that they are not welcome.

“Here, any non-Hispanic/Latinx community college student considering participation in the Puente Project would clearly see that it is intended for Hispanic/Latinx students only, either because of the explicit way the program is described, or because of strong racial signaling. The demographics for admitted Puente Project participants also bears out its discriminatory purpose.”

The complaint cites enrollment figures from various community colleges to back this point up.

For example, at De Anza College in Cupertino, approximately 97% of Puente Project students in 2017 were Latino.

In 2015 and 2016, at Norco College, part of the Riverside Community School District, 100 percent of the Puente Project students were Latino.

Jacobson also obtained similarly incriminating statewide figures that he included in a supplemental filing last month.

The filing says that, “We now possess that statewide data, which shows that the vast majority of Puente Project participants have been and remain Hispanic/Latinx.”

For example, in Spring 2024, 93.45% of Puente Project students statewide were Latino.

Despite all these incriminating numbers,  the University of California insists the Puente Project is not guilty of discrimination.

Wait.

Aren’t liberal education leaders supposed to be in favor of diversity?  The Puente Project doesn’t sound very diverse.

The University of California said in a press statement that, “The University of California’s programs and policies comply with applicable state and federal anti-discrimination laws and align with current legal standards that govern public institutions, and we will continue to meet our constitutional and statutory requirements.”