Federal Civil Rights Complaint Filed Against the Claremont Colleges

Jacobsen, a Cornell Law School professor and founder of the Legal Insurrection Foundation (LIF) as well as the Equal Protection Project (a project of the LIF), is bringing this civil rights complaint against the Claremont Colleges and the following six institutional members of the Claremont Colleges for offering, promoting, and administering one or more discriminatory scholarships and programs based on race, color, national origin, sex, or both, in violation of Title VI and Title IX, respectively:

• Pitzer College (9) (see page 4)

• Claremont Graduate University (4) (see page 8)

• Harvey Mudd College (2) (see page 11)

• Claremont McKenna College (1) (see page 13)

• Pomona College (1) (see page 14)

• Scripps College (1) (see page 14)

“All of the undergraduate institutional members of the Claremont Colleges offer, promote, or administer a discriminatory joint fellowship, the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, described in Exhibit A (see page 20). In addition, several of the schools offer other scholarships or programs that are also discriminatory and violate federal law, as set forth below.”

These are just some of the alleged discriminatory scholarships:

Diane Shammas ’75 Endowed Scholarship is awarded to students of Middle Eastern descent or students who study the Middle East.”

Halford H. Fairchild Endowed Scholarship in Africana Studies: preference is given to students majoring in Africana Studies. Should no students in a given year meet this criterion, any enrolled African American student with financial need and good academic standing may be selected for the scholarship.”

Diane Mosbacher ’72 Endowed Scholarship: “The donors strongly prefer that the Diane Mosbacher ’72 Endowed Scholarship assist minority females.”

Black Scholars Award at Claremont Graduate University was established in 2015 and recognizes exemplary work by students who are of Black African ancestry. 

Susan Solorzano Minority Student Fellowship aids African American and Hispanic students who are pursuing degrees in any discipline at CGU.” [emphasis from lawsuit]

“Creating educational opportunities based on race, color, national origin, or sex violates Titles VI and IX of the Civil Rights Act, as well as state law. Such scholarships also violate the non-discrimination policies of the institutional members of the Claremont Colleges. We are asking the Claremont Colleges and its institutional members to live up to the law and their own rules, and remove the discriminatory eligibility barriers.”

Jacobsen explains that the scholarships should remain intact, but the discriminatory aspects need to be removed: “We do not want these scholarships terminated, we want the discriminatory provisions removed. We want students to have access to the funding, but every student should have fair and equal opportunity for scholarships without regard to race, color, national origin, or sex.”

“Race and sex discrimination is wrong and unlawful no matter which race or sex is targeted or benefits.”

There is recent precedence for this case. The lawsuit says, “In Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. 181 (2023), the Supreme Court declared that “[e]liminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it …. The guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color. If both are not accorded the same protection, then it is not equal. Distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry [including race] are by their very nature odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality.”

Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College is a significant Supreme Court case that ruled affirmative action in college admissions unconstitutional, impacting how race can be considered in admissions processes.

“Petitioner Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) sued Harvard College over its admissions process, alleging that the process violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discriminating against Asian American applicants and white applicants in favor of “underrepresented” minority applicants,” Oyez.org summarized. “Harvard admits that it uses race as one of many factors in its admissions process but argues that its process adheres to the requirements for race-based admissions outlined in the Supreme Court’s decision in Grutter v. Bollinger.”

“The Equal Protection Project calls on the senior administration of the Claremont Colleges and its institutional members to make sure nondiscrimination standards are upheld throughout the institutions,” Jacobsen said.

“The Claremont Colleges and its institutional members should know better than to run scholarships or programs that treat students differently based on race, color, national origin, or sex. Where were the administrators and staff whose jobs supposedly are devoted to preventing discrimination? Why was there no intervention to uphold the legally required equal access to education?” Jacobsen asked.

“At the Equal Protection Project (EqualProtect.org) we have filed cases against over 110 institutions challenging over 500 discriminatory scholarships and programs. In no case are we aware of a school claiming it was free to discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, or sex, so why does it keep happening? Unfortunately there is a culture on many campuses that excuses some forms of discrimination, and that needs to stop.”

“We call on the Claremont Colleges to reexamine the campus culture, including at the institutional members, to understand why some forms of discrimination appear to be tolerated.”

The Equal Protection Project is the nation’s leading civil rights group devoted to eliminating discriminatory programming, practices, and scholarships in higher education, having filed legal challenges to over 110 colleges and universities covering over 500 discriminatory programs and scholarships.

OCR Complaint - Claremont Colleges And Six Institutional Members