Geisel Library at University of California San Diego
SAN DIEGO - The University of California San Diego has been hit with a lawsuit accusing the school of violating federal civil rights laws by partnering with another organization to offer racially discriminatory scholarships open only to black students.
On July 15, a transfer student, who is a junior at UC San Diego, filed suit in San Diego federal court against the school.
The student, identified as Kai Peters, is joined in the action by the organization known as Californians for Equal Rights Foundation. CFER claims several of its members are college and high school students who are seeking scholarships. Those students are not identified in the complaint.
The lawsuit takes aim at the so-called Black Alumni Scholarship Fund. The program awards scholarships worth up to $10,000 per year, plus mentoring opportunities.
While currently administered by the nonprofit San Diego Foundation, the complaint says the BASF was launched in 1983 and administered until 1998 as "a state-run program that awarded scholarships based on race."
At that time, California voters passed the measure known as Proposition 209, barring discrimination in public education. The measure applied to scholarship opportunities, as well.
According to the complaint, UC San Diego at that time decided to transfer the BASF program to the San Diego Foundation as "a way around the prohibition" of Prop 209.
However, the complaint asserts the BASF, which is open only to black applicants, still amounts to state-sponsored racial discrimination, in violation of federal law and California state law.
"UCSD conspires with BASF to award scholarships based on race through sleight of hand, in violation of the clear commands of the United States and California Constitutions to treat its students equally," the students' complaint asserts.
According to the complaint, Peters and his co-plaintiffs, who are not black, would apply for the scholarship opportunity, but cannot, because they are of the wrong race and skin color.
According to the complaint, CFER asserts the member students participating in the legal action are racially identified as one Indian American student and two Asian American students, plus other Asian American members who allegedly plan to apply for admission to UC San Diego.
Peters is identified as white.
The lawsuit seeks a court order blocking UC San Diego "from releasing students' demographic information to BASF and otherwise conspiring to award race-based scholarships."
They are also seeking attorney fees.
The students and CFER are represented in the action by attorneys Larry Salzman, Jack Brown and Haley Dutch, of the Pacific Legal Foundation, of Sacramento and Arlington, Virginia.
“Our clients don’t seek special treatment — just equal treatment,” said Brown in a prepared statement announcing the lawsuit. “Scholarships tied to race deprive students of financial help, mentoring, and networking that should be open to everyone.”
“Government actors cannot do indirectly what the Constitution forbids them to do directly,” said Dutch. “UC San Diego’s entanglement with a private entity to enforce racial exclusions is an end-run around both the U.S. Constitution and California’s Proposition 209.”
