The College Fix

KSU social group QTPOC formerly stated it was ‘CLOSED group for Queer and Trans People of Color’

Less than 48 hours after a complaint was recently filed over a program that appeared to exclude white cisgender students, a Kent State University website was changed to state “all are welcome” at the social group.

QTPOC was formerly listed online as a “CLOSED group for Queer and Trans People of Color” at the Ohio-based public institution.

A watchdog filed a civil rights complaint against Kent State University for appearing to allow the LGBTQ+ social group to exclude students based on race and sex.

Economist Mark Perry, who filed the complaint, told The College Fix it is “not only illegal to discriminate based on race or sex, it violates the principles of equity and inclusion that most universities actively promote.”

Less than 48 hours after the complaint was filed in late August with the U.S. Department of Education’s Cleveland-based Office for Civil Rights, Kent State’s website was changed to say that “all are welcome.”

Kent State’s media affairs division did not respond to requests for comment.

Perry told The College Fix he filed the complaint following a tip. In their own words, the individual was concerned because a public university offered “resources throughout the semester to a restricted social group based on race and sexual orientation.”

Perry said he shared a courtesy copy of the complaint he filed with top university leaders and noted that appears to have prompted the change.

Kent State University has two social groups for LGBTQ students: Q’ommunity and QTPOC.

Q’ommunity is listed on the website as “a group for anyone in the LGBTQ+ community, including those that are allies and those that are questioning. All are welcome!”

Additionally, QTPOC is now listed as “a group with the purpose of holding space to discuss challenges of being a student holding multiple marginalized identities, specifically those of students who are LGBTQ+ and also people of color. All are welcome!”

After these changes were made, Perry officially withdrew his complaint, he said.

“Our LGBTQ+ Center has updated the site to ensure all students are aware that they are welcome to attend the group meetings. This has been the case in practice, but that was perhaps not clear to all visitors to the website,” Nichole DeCaprio, senior associate counsel for Kent State University, told Perry in an email.

Perry told The Fix that programs, scholarships, clubs, and social groups are illegal if they restrict access based on race, color, or national origin, a law established through Title VI, or sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, a law established through Title IX.

“It is unlawful for students to be treated differently based on race or sex when determining their eligibility for access to campus programs or financial aid,” he said.

“Clubs and social groups could have a race-based, sex-based, or LGBTQ+-based focus, but it would be illegal to exclude certain groups of students based on their race or sex,” Perry said.

He said universities receive federal funds and have a legal obligation to actively enforce federal civil rights laws.

“The case of illegal discrimination at Kent State University is another example of hundreds when a university center (like the LGBTQ+ Center at Kent), staff member, faculty member, or administrator comes up with a new program like QTPOC that discriminates based on sex and race. They don’t realize the program is illegal, and they don’t think it’s necessary to get legal clearance from the university’s legal office and the program goes forward,” Perry told The College Fix.

“Once the General Counsel reviews it, it takes only a few seconds for the lawyers to realize it’s illegal and they scrub the website or change the requirements to comply with Title VI/IX like [what] happened at Kent State within 48 hours.”

Perry said he thinks that “part of the widespread discrimination problem in higher education is that sex and race discrimination are so common, that university centers, faculty, staff, and administrators don’t even think discrimination against men, whites, and heterosexuals is illegal which might have been a factor in Kent State’s decision to introduce the QTPOC social group.”

MORE: Indiana University has 19 ‘discriminatory scholarships’: federal civil rights complaint

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