The U.S. Department of Education on Friday opened new investigations into 52 colleges and universities, including the University of South Florida, for alleged discrimination on the basis of race.
“The Department is working to reorient civil rights enforcement to ensure all students are protected from illegal discrimination,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a press release. “Today’s announcement expands our efforts to ensure universities are not discriminating against their students based on race and race stereotypes.”
USF is among six universities under investigation for alleged impermissible race-based scholarships. The letter does not specify which USF scholarships are alleged to violate antidiscrimination statutes, nor did the letter specify which racial groups had been discriminated against.
USF received the letter from the Department on Thursday, referring to a complaint against the McKnight Doctoral Fellowship Program, spokesperson Althea Johnson said.
The scholarship, founded in 1984, “is designed to address the underrepresentation of African American and Hispanic faculty at colleges and universities in the state of Florida,” according to the program’s website.
The fellowship program is offered at nine Florida colleges and universities, including the University of Florida and Florida State University, and is permitted under state law, Johnson added.
The Department alleges that the fellowship breaks federal antidiscrimination law by providing “graduate school funding exclusively for full-time doctoral students who are African American or Hispanic.”
The letter requests data on the McKnight program, including promotion materials and the number of fellowship participants classified by race and national origin.
An additional 45 schools were alleged to violate Title IV by partnering with “The Ph.D. Project,” an organization that purports to provide doctoral students with insights into obtaining a Ph.D. and networking opportunities, but limits eligibility based on the race of participants. One school allegedly operated a program that segregates students by race.
Friday’s action was the second time this week that the department invoked Title IV rules, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity or national origin. On Monday it accused 60 universities of discrimination against Jewish students. USF and the University of Tampa were among those named.
The Trump administration has already slashed the workforce of the department’s Office of Civil Rights, which investigates Title VI complaints, by more than half, according to a Washington Post analysis.
This is a developing story. Check Tampabay.com for updates.
Ian Hodgson is an education reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, working in partnership with Open Campus.
