Following a complaint filed with the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, California State University changed a program that was only open to men of color and is now open to all students.
”“California State University, like most universities, has a very large bureaucracy dedicated to preventing and correcting discrimination,” said William Jacobson, a professor at Cornell University. equal protection projecthe told FOX News Digital. “So why do universities as a system openly discriminate?”
The complaint filed by Jacobson and the Equal Protection Project on November 19, 2024 alleges that 23 California State University campuses “young men of color consortium. ”
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According to the consortium's website, the program was created to “create systemic change in higher education and improve outcomes for Black, Latino, Asian Pacific Islander, and Native American men.” That's what it means.
“Because discrimination is…probably illegal and CSU cannot demonstrate a convincing government justification for it, exclusion of CSU programs based on race, color, national origin, or sex is prohibited under federal civil rights law and the Constitution.” ’s guarantee of equal protection,” the complaint states. From reading EPP.
“The highest level of the California State University system needs to investigate how something like this happened and make sure it never happens again,” Jacobson said. “It shouldn't take organizations like mine, small nonprofits like mine, to draw attention to these kinds of problems and solve them. This is something they should be self-policing. But apparently they didn't.”
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The Office of Civil Rights' final letter dated January 15, 2025 states that California State University cannot legally discriminate on the basis of sex under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and Title IX of the Education Reform Act of 1972. It is written.
There have been numerous anti-Israel protests on California State University campuses in recent years. ((Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images))
Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex or gender against organizations that receive federal funding. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in activities and programs receiving federal funding.
The complaint alleges that at least eight of the 23 programs violate Title VI and IX, including the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Men of Color Success Initiative. claims. This initiative was only open to students who identify as people of color.
In a closing letter, the Office of Civil Rights said CSU has changed the consortium to be open to all students.
“Since you filed your complaint, OCR has made changes to the Consortium and its programs/initiatives to ensure that the University is open to all students regardless of race, color, national origin, or gender. “We have confirmed that we have added this,” the closing letter reads. “OCR has received reliable information indicating that the complaint has been resolved; therefore, the facts underlying the complaint no longer exist and OCR has no evidence of any violation of law.”
The California State University System did not respond to a request for comment.
However, Jacobson told Fox News Digital it remains to be seen whether the issue will be resolved.
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“When schools change the language of a program and make it available to everyone, are they really doing it?” Jacobson said. “Are they practicing like that? Are they doing it when they think no one is watching? And that's a big concern, because one of the problems we have is Because it often feels like we're playing whack-a-mole: we bring this program down, let them open it, and then another program pops up somewhere else and when you deal with it. , another program will pop up in a different location.
Graduates participate in the California State University Long Beach College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics commencement ceremony at Angel Stadium in Anaheim on Monday, May 15, 2023. (Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press Telegram via Getty Images)
He added that the public plays an important role in oversight and accountability.
“People need to be cautious because you can't just accept at face value that a school says, 'We're not going to do that again,' and just assume that they're not going to do that anymore,” he said. Ta. . “That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to teach universities not to do things like this, and we hope they don't do things like that. But… We rely on the public to alert us when universities are not meeting their obligations.”
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