Exclusive | Top California school under federal investigation over race-based scholarships, student centers
The U.S. Department of Education has opened a civil rights investigation into UC Berkeley over three student programs and two scholarships after a February complaint alleged discrimination based on race, color or national origin.
The investigation was disclosed in a Nov. 3 letter from the department’s Office for Civil Rights, obtained exclusively by the California Post. The department verified the letter and confirmed it is investigating the university for alleged violations of federal civil rights law.
The probe stems from a complaint filed Feb. 10 by the Legal Insurrection Foundation, which targets the African American Student Development Office, the Black Resource Center, the Latinx Student Resource Center, the African American Initiative Scholarship and the Lloyd A. Edwards Scholarship.
The complaint argues that even if the three programs don’t turn students away, their names and descriptions would likely discourage students outside the named racial or ethnic groups from participating.
It alleges the two scholarships have eligibility criteria that exclude applicants based on race, color or national origin.
“Not all cases get open for investigation,” William A. Jacobson, president of the Legal Insurrection Foundation, the group that filed the complaint, told the Post. “So when we get a case open for investigation, we interpret that as a sign that the department views the allegations as both factually and legally serious and worthy of investigation.”
Jacobson, who described the open investigation as a”extremely significant step,” said the way a program is marketed can be discriminatory on its own.
“Even if you don’t physically turn people away because you have scared people away, you have signaled that you will be discriminating,” he said. “It is not a defense to an unlawful promotion of a program based on race or ethnicity to say, ‘Well, we did promote it that way, but we never physically turned anybody away.’”
UC Berkeley said in a statement that it “is fully committed to creating a learning environment that is free from all forms of discrimination.”
The university said the two scholarships under scrutiny are funded by outside sources, not by the university or by federal or state money.
“For scholarships administered by UC Berkeley, award amounts are determined without regard to a student’s race, gender, or other identity characteristics,” the statement said.
Jacobson rejected the argument that outside funding shields the school.
“UC Berkeley as a public university is required to comply with the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, equal protection under the laws. It doesn’t matter where the money comes from,” he said. “The institution has to treat everybody equally without regard to race or ethnicity.”
“If it is run through university, if it’s facilitated by the university, if it’s promoted by the university, even if it’s from an outside organization, the university still needs to comply with Title 6, and it cannot discriminate on the basis of race color or national origin,” he added.
The university also added that any student who shows financial need is eligible for its financial support, noting that about two-thirds of its undergraduates qualify for aid. It said its student resource centers are open to all students and that it continues to meet its obligations under federal law in running its scholarships and programs.
The letter, signed by OCR Chief Attorney Anamaria Loya, also warns the university against retaliating against anyone who files a complaint or participates in the investigation.
California voters banned the use of race in public university admissions and hiring with Proposition 209 in 1996. The measure is now part of the state Constitution and bars the state from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to anyone based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in public employment, education and contracting.
Voters rejected an attempt to repeal it with Proposition 16 in 2020.
The Berkeley probe is the latest federal action against California’s public universities. In March 2025, the Trump administration opened investigations into admissions policies at Stanford and three UC campuses, including UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Irvine.
“We do find California to be one of the leading offenders as a state,” Jacobson told The Post.
His group has led the charge against race-based campus programs nationwide, challenging some 300 schools and getting many of them to rename their programs.
“We almost never want the program shut down. We want the discrimination shut down. So these programs, if they provide valuable educational opportunities, that’s fine, but they have to be promoted and conducted, consistent with the civil rights laws,” he said.
