WASHINGTON (WAVY) — The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced Monday it will open a compliance review against the College of William & Mary to determine whether its scholarships and student benefits include racial criteria in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin.
“Awarding scholarships or offering coveted opportunities to students based on the color of their skin is illegal and offends the guarantees of our color-blind Constitution,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a statement. “We will find out if scholarships or other student benefits at William & Mary favor applicants of certain races. The Department will not turn a blind eye to race-based preferences, however they are packaged or portrayed by universities.”
William & Mary, in a statement on its website in response to a federal review at colleges and universities “as it relates to compliance of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” said it “is committed to nondiscriminatory learning environments across our campus and complying with all state and federal laws. We are reviewing the information received on August 17, 2026. As a matter of practice, the university doesn’t comment on pending legal matters.”
Read the letter from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to William & Mary below, dated Aug. 17:
The Justice Department noted that the W&M Scholars program for first-year undergraduate students has a scholarship “covering at least the full cost of in-state tuition and fees,” and the department noted applicants with an “interest in diverse people and perspectives [get] top consideration.”
The department noted the college’s School of Education offers a need-based Martha L. Muguira Fellowship to graduate students, with a preference toward Hispanic or Latino women, while the college’s School of Education doctoral-level Holmes Scholars program gives “future education leaders of color” mentorship, access to job fairs and position announcements, and national-level professional development benefits such as policy/advocacy training and opportunities to present their research.
The college’s law school, it noted, offers that Lemon Legal Scholars Program, a “multifaceted financial and mentorship opportunity” for graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, with up to five full-ride scholarships which the Justice Department said appeared “exclusively earmarked for HBCU graduates. The law school, according to the Justice Department, also advertises the “Reaching Back Scholarship,” a needs-based scholarship that gives “preference” to HBCU graduates or people “who contribute to the diversity” of the law school.
The Civil Rights Division said it had not reached any conclusions about the subject matter of the investigation.
