The University of Minnesota has recently received backlash from an advocacy group after the school opened a taxpayer-funded internship program, which is only available to non-white students.
The Equal Protection Project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation shared during an interview with Fox News that it is calling for the school to change its application process and allow all students to apply for its paid undergraduate internship program regardless of skin color.
Bill Jacobson, the president of the group, said during his interview with Fox News that the summer program is “segregated” and “inexcusable.”
He continued, saying, “it’s shocking that a major university would so openly make educational opportunities open only to students of a certain skin color.”
The website for the university’s Office of Undergraduate Studies describes its Multicultural Summer Research Opportunities Program as “an intensive 10-week summer program in which undergraduate students of color work full-time with a faculty mentor on a research project.”
Those selected to participate in the program are given a $6,000 stipend for personal and research expenses, but, to be eligible, the website says students must be a person of color.
In the application process for the program, it says that its purpose is “to prepare students of color and Native Americans for graduate school.”
Jacobson says that narrowing the applicant field to those who are considered non-white does not stop racial discrimination.
“There is no good form of racial discrimination. Depriving white students of educational opportunities does not promote racial or any other form of justice,” Jacobson said.
On Friday, Jacobson and his organization sent an official federal civil rights complaint to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, saying that the university is discriminating against students through the program. The group is demanding that the university remove its race requirements for the program immediately.
“We urge the U.S. Department of Education to fully investigate how pervasive segregationist practices are at U. Minnesota. Federal funding should not be used to promote educational opportunities restricted by skin color,” Jacobson told Fox News Digital. “Federal funding for U. Minnesota needs to be reevaluated.”
The advocacy group argues that the University of Minnesota’s internship program violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“We all thought racial segregation in education as government policy ended with Brown v. Bd. of Education, but unfortunately, it has been reborn under the umbrella of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” Jacobson said. “Whatever you call it, it’s immoral and illegal, and U. Minnesota needs to stop treating students differently based on skin color.”
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