On March 18, two groups that oppose race-exclusive programming in schools filed a complaint against Saint Louis University, with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR). It claimed that SLU’s minority-only scholarships and programs for disadvantaged and underrepresented social groups are illegal.

The groups, the Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO), in Sterling, Va., and the American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI), in Sacramento, Calif., told SLU in a letter dated Feb. 17, that its programs violate Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which forbids recipients of federal funding to discriminate “on the basis of race, color or national origin.”

SLU Vice President and General Counsel William Kauffman has defended the programs, yet says the University will base its future course of action on the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in two cases that challenge race-conscious admissions at the University of Michigan.

Kauffman expects the court to rule by mid-summer, but that may not affect SLU’s long-term commitment to diversity, he said. “I am reasonably confident that there is a sufficient recognition of the importance of diversity to the higher education experience that we will be able to find some way to address the issue of inclusiveness in our academic programming.”

Kauffman responded to the CEO and ACRI in a March 14 letter, which “The [Education Department’s] Office for Civil Rights policy guidance on minority scholarships recognizes that race-exclusive financial aid programs intended to promote diversity are distinguishable from admissions programs that may have a direct averse impact on non-minorities. Thus OCR has specifically recognized that such financial aid programs are not per se illegal.”

In addition to financial aid programs, SLU promotes “outreach recruitment activities that target disadvantaged and underrepresented minorities,” Kauffman’s letter said. SLU’s Law and Medical schools also offer “academic enrichment programs for disadvantaged students that include non-minorities,” the letter said, noting participants are not guaranteed admission to those schools.

The CEO and ACRI have asked dozens of other schools in the United States to discontinue race-exclusive programming. Most notably, Princeton University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have altered programs, after receiving the groups’ request. Princeton ended an 18-year-old program for minority students interested in international and public policy studies. MIT decided to open high school summer math and science programs to nonminority students.

Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and the University of Missouri at Columbia also received letters. SIUC is reviewing their programs while MU, like SLU, has defended their programs to the CEO and ACRI

If the Supreme Court does not decide in favor of the race-exclusive programming, Kauffman said, “The extensive federal support that higher education institutions receive will effectively make it impossible to do anything that is at variance with whatever the [law] is.”

He clarified that SLU will maintain its commitment to diversity and social justice that the minority programming addressed. “I think that even if you look at the [OCR’s “Race-Neutral Alternatives in Post-Secondary Education,”] there is an acknowledgement that a diverse student body benefits from the educational process. I don’t think that very many people take serious issue with that.”