New engineering scholarship for ‘women and minorities’ at Louisiana university raises questions
A scholarship aimed at “women and minorities” at Northwestern State University is likely illegal according to a civil rights expert.
Tom and Katy Hall “established an endowed scholarship” which they “hope…will enable women and minorities who are underrepresented in the engineering profession,” to pursue that career route, according to a news release.
The Hall Family Scholarship at the public Louisiana university “definitely” violates Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination, according to a civil rights activist.
Title IX specifically bans financial assistance programs that “On the basis of sex, provide different amounts or types of such assistance, limit eligibility for such assistance which is of any particular type or source, apply different criteria, or otherwise discriminate.”
“The 14th Amendment mandates that no state can deny equal protection of the laws,” Ed Bartlett, founder of Stop Abusive and Violent Environments, said via email to The College Fix.
His group advocates for fair treatment and due process rights for students, regardless of sex.
“Unfortunately, many colleges have misinterpreted the constitutional requirement for ‘equal opportunity’ as a mandate for ‘uniform outcomes,’” the civil rights activist said. “That Marxist interpretation of ‘equality’ does a great disservice to male students and ultimately to our nation.”
When asked what recommendations he would offer to universities to ensure that their scholarship programs protect the rights of all students, Bartlett said universities should “eliminate all sex-specific scholarships, or ensure that any pre-existing sex-specific scholarships are proportionately available to both male and female students.”
None of the offices contacted by The Fix via email and phone call in the past week responded to requests for comment on the legality of the programs.
The College Fix reached out to several Northwestern State offices, including the department of engineering technology, the news bureau, the director of public information and media relations, the office of institutional effectiveness, and the general counsel.
The Office for Civil Rights released a series of questions and answers providing further guidance clarifying how Title IX applies to single-sex scholarships and programs. According to the OCR, schools generally cannot “impose a preference or restriction on the basis of sex with respect to a scholarship” or “promote third-party scholarships, fellowships, or other forms of financial assistance to its students if those scholarships impose a preference or restriction for students of one sex.”
The legal concerns surrounding Northwestern State University’s Hall Family Scholarship are not isolated.
Bartlett’s group reviewed over 200 American colleges and universities in 2019 and found a significant preference for women over men in sex-specific scholarships. In fact, “57% of institutions offer scholarships that facially violate provisions of Title IX that ban sex-based discrimination,” according to the study.
A college in Alabama is offering $75,000 in trade scholarships exclusively to women, aimed at encouraging female participation in welding and automotive technology, as previously reported by The Fix. Bartlett told The Fix that this program also violates Title IX.
Other similar cases of sex-specific scholarships include the Velma E. Stuit and Myrtle K. Maier Scholarships at the University of Iowa, several scholarships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University Women’s Organization Scholarship program at Yale.
MORE: 92 percent of sex-specific scholarships are reserved for women, study finds
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