The University of California is operating a massive discriminatory taxpayer-funded academic program that caters to Latinos while excluding non-Latinos, according to a bombshell civil-rights complaint.
The Puente Project is currently at 65 community colleges, even though it violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the constitution, said the Equal Protection Project, a conservative legal advocacy group, in documents filed Sunday with the US Education Department.
“The Puente Project reflects what has gone wrong in higher education, where group identity drives educational opportunity, in this case programming designed for and promoted as for one ethnic group,” said Equal Projection Project President William Jacobson.
Founded in 1981, the Puente Project was launched as a project to aid academically struggling Mexican-American and Latino students.
The program receives $13 million in state funding.
The goal of Puente — the Spanish word for `”bridge” — is to boost the number of “disadvantaged” and “underrepresented” students who transfer from a community college to a four-year institution.
Puente Project students get a “second chance” at admission at California state universities as opposed to other students, the complaint said.
Enrollment figures over the years show the overwhelming majority or nearly all students in the Puente Project program at some campuses are Latino.
At Narco College, Golden West College and Napa Valley Community, 100% of students were Latino or “other” during some years, while none were white, black or Asian, the complaint said.
The complaint alleged that the Puente Project uses “strong exclusionary racial signaling,” indicating 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 from applying,” the complaint said.
Puente Project is administered through the University of California President’s Office and the California Community College’s Chancellor’s Office.
“These senior administrators should be ensuring equality for all students regardless of race or ethnicity, not promoting one group over others,” Jacobson told The Post.
“At EPP, our guiding principle is that the remedy for racism never is more racism. To the extent California community colleges seek greater diversity, there are many lawful means of achieving that goal, but discrimination is not one of them.”
The University of California issued a statement defending the program and its legality.
“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,” a spokesperson said.
The US Education Department also had no immediate comment.
Federal education officials have already taken action against Columbia University and the City University of New York for allegedly failing to protect Jewish students from discrimination, leading to settlements.
The EPP has filed similar discrimination complaints or lawsuits against the New York state Education Department, State University of New York campuses including SUNY-Albany and SUNY-Buffalo Law; and Fordham University and Alfred University.
The group has challenged more than 100 colleges and universities nationwide for 500 alleged discriminatory scholarships and programs.
