DEI has permeated every level of education and culture. At the Legal Insurrection Foundation, we have been actively combatting, cataloguing, and exposing DEI and its various acronym iterations for over a decade.
The newest Trump administration has taken swift action against many DEI strongholds, but it’s our view that the death of DEI is far from imminent.
If you missed our online event live, you may watch it here:
criticalrace.org.betasites.soundst.com/wp/ released a report in which we dove into how larger schools in states that have taken legislative action against DEI and CRT have handled new restrictions.
The results were disappointing and prove how deeply ingrained DEI and CRT have become in university thought, policy, and culture.
On June 25, 2024, the Legal Insurrection Foundation held an online event, China’s Troubling Funding Influence in Higher Education.
From the announcement:
China’s influence in all facets of our country has expanded rapidly in recent decades. Incredibly concerning is the vast stranglehold China has on research institutions. In this webinar we will discuss how Chinese funding of our major research institutions and universities is impacting higher education and what can be done to stop the damage.
This event is hosted by the Legal Insurrection Foundation. We’re pleased to host Paul Moore, Paul R. Moore is a Senior Fellow supporting the Prague Security Studies Institute’s Economic and Financial Statecraft Program. He previously served as Chief Investigative Counsel at the U.S. Department of Education, where he led the Department’s investigations of undisclosed foreign financial involvements at America’s colleges and universities. Mr. Moore served for 12 years at the U.S. Department of Justice, including as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Boston, Massachusetts and Alexandria, Virginia economic crime units. At DOJ, he also served as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy and as Counsel to the Assistant U.S. Attorney General.
Mr. Moore was General Counsel for a U.S.-based defense contractor, has worked for two governors, and has provided testimony to the U.S. Congress regarding nefarious efforts by foreign powers to access American intellectual property at university-affiliated research institutions.
Legal Insurrection Foundation founder and president, William Jacobson will also participate in the discussion moderated by Kemberlee Kaye, Operations and Editorial Director for Legal Insurrection Foundation.
Here is the event video. (Sorry, no transcript excerpts this time.)
On May 8, 2024, Legal Insurrection Foundation and its Equal Protection Project hosted an online webinar, Who Is Funding Anti-Israel Campus Protests?
This article originally appeared in The Daily Iowan and catalogues how our Equal Protection Project efforts have prompted universities to re-examine their diversity policies.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court ended race-based admissions by striking down affirmative action in June 2023, dozens of institutions have changed their admissions policies. Now thousands of dollars in scholarships aimed at people with diverse backgrounds are under review, including at the University of Iowa.
UI officials told The Daily Iowan that the school began reviewing scholarships after the overturning of affirmative action and when some civil complaints started to be filed against other universities.
In a statement to the DI, UI Assistant Vice President for External Relations Jeneane Beck wrote that the university consulted with the Iowa Attorney General’s Office and the Office of the Iowa Board of Regents on the matter.
“Based on the principles articulated by the Supreme Court, the university is reviewing and amending scholarships and other financial aid offerings that use certain protected class characteristics (e.g. race, gender, age, or sexual orientation) as selection criteria,” Beck wrote.
Since the end of affirmative action, higher education institutions in the U.S. have had to quickly figure out the new law.
Julie J. Park, an associate professor of education at the University of Maryland and researcher of racial equity in higher education, campus racial climate, and college admissions, wrote in an email to the DI that the restriction on race-based admissions caused by the Supreme Court decision technically should not affect scholarships.
“That said, people are drawing the conclusion that if we aren’t allowed to directly know an applicant’s race/ethnicity during undergrad admissions, that scholarships that cater to particular groups are also subject to be challenged,” she wrote.
UI diversity scholarships under review
UI officials said less than 10 percent of all university scholarships are being reviewed and not all of those will have to change. The criteria and wording for affected scholarships will likely be changed to be inclusive of people from all backgrounds, as opposed to people from a specific ethnic or racial group.
Some UI scholarships have already been impacted, including the Advantage Iowa Award. While the award was previously reserved for incoming first-year students from historically underrepresented populations, including those with African American, Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islander, and multiracial backgrounds, it will now be a need-based award for students of all backgrounds.
At this time, it is undetermined when the review will be completed. UI officials told the DI that they will have to read through each scholarship to see if it includes a protected class characteristic in its criteria, then meet with each scholarship donor to assess whether they are willing to change the wording and criteria of their fund.
In an email to the DI, regents’ Senior Communications Director Josh Lehman wrote that each university is handling its review individually.
“The universities consulted with the Board office on this issue. As financial aid is managed at the institutional level, the universities are currently reviewing their financial aid offerings to ensure compliance and consistency among all regent institutions,” he wrote.
Iowa State University and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office did not respond to requests for comment on the reviewing process.
University of Northern Iowa Director of University Relations Pete Moris wrote in an email to the DI that all scholarships are based on merit or financial need.
“There are various criteria across the many colleges and departments, but none of them involved protected class characteristics,” he wrote.
Higher education institutions face lawsuits
Multiple lawsuits were filed against universities that continue to have programs and scholarships designated for students of a certain race or background. One example is a complaint against Kansas State University filed on Aug. 16, 2023, for providing a “racially discriminatory” multicultural student scholarship.
The scholarship, titled the Joey Lee Garmon Multicultural Scholarship, is “directed toward students of historically underrepresented backgrounds. The applicant must be of an ethnic group that have been historically and traditionally oppressed in the achievement of academic and leadership endeavors to include applicants of African American, American Indian, Asian American, and Latinx American heritage.”
The complaint, which was filed with the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education by the Equal Protection Project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation, argues that the scholarship violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which “prohibits intentional discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin in any ‘program or activity’ that receives federal financial assistance.”
Title VI also “prohibits discrimination on the basis of race in federally funded programs,” and thus “applies to universities receiving federal financial assistance,” the complaint states, quoting from the case Rowles v. Curators of the Univ. of Mo.
“The guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color. If both are not accorded the same protection, then it is not equal,’” the complaint states, quoting the case.
Now, other complaints similar to the ones filed against Kansas State University are impacting other institutions, including Big Ten school the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which is facing a complaint from the same company for “supporting and promoting a program that engages in invidious discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin.”
Read more here.
We have been warning for years about the pernicious and corrosive impact of the racialization of education under the umbrellas of Critical Race Theory and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
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As February 2023 marks the two-year anniversary(!) of criticalrace.org.betasites.soundst.com/wp/ (a project of Legal Insurrection Foundation), we thought, no better way to celebrate than by announcing this new way of connecting with you.
CRTracker won’t be your traditional newsletter roundup of current events – that’s been done before. We know our audience craves more insight, more context, and the tools to become equipped in the ever-changing battlefield of CRT in education. Each email will contain a mix of:
(1) Data analysis from a handpicked subset of criticalrace.org.betasites.soundst.com/wp/ database entries;
(2) Takeaways from CRT-related thought pieces that mark a shift in language or narrative, before they’ve infused into the mainstream lexicon;
(3) Content for parents to take control of their childrens' education, explain CRT themes and offer viable alternative approaches;
(4) Listings of upcoming discussions and events (in-person and online) related to CRT that are open to the public; and
(5) DEI-related takeaways on the growing post-graduate outcomes industry linking schools with corporate America.
This article was originally published by Fox News and is based upon the original research of criticalrace.org.betasites.soundst.com/wp/.
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The next generation of America’s top doctors could be more concerned about a patient’s race than previous generations.
criticalrace.org.betasites.soundst.com/wp/, which monitors critical race theory (CRT) curricula and training in higher education, has expanded its Medical School Database and found that 58 of the nation’s top 100 medical schools have some form of mandatory student training or coursework related to the polarizing idea that racism is systemic in America’s institutions.
“Medical School education is in crisis, with ‘social justice’ and race-focused activism being imposed on students, faculty, and staff,” William Jacobson told Fox News Digital.
Jacobson, Clinical Professor of Law at Cornell Law School and founder of the Legal Insurrection website, founded criticalrace.org.betasites.soundst.com/wp/’s sprawling database that has also examined elite K-12 private schools, 500 of America's top undergraduate programs and military service academies.
Earlier this year, the group uncovered that 23 of the 25 most prestigious medical colleges and universities have some form of mandatory CRT-related student training or coursework. criticalrace.org.betasites.soundst.com/wp/ expanded the study and found that 46 of the top 100 medical schools have offered materials by authors Robin DiAngelo or Ibram Kendi, whose books explicitly call for discrimination, according to Jacobson.
"Approaching the doctor-patient relationship through a Critical Race lens is being implemented under the umbrella of 'Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion' and other euphemisms, such as Ibram Kendi's 'anti-racism' approach. 'White privilege' and similar concepts, pushed by Robin DeAngelo and others, are being infused into the medical school culture," he said.
The schools examined were based on the rankings by U.S. News’ rankings of America’s top medical schools. The study also found that 38 of the top 100 medical schools have some sort of mandatory CRT-related training for faculty and staff.
For students, 14 schools were found to have department-specific mandatory training, 31 were found to have school-wide mandatory training and 41 have school-wide mandatory curricula. When it comes to faculty and staff, 18 schools have department-specific mandatory training, 30 have school-wide mandatory training and five have hiring committee-specific training.
criticalrace.org.betasites.soundst.com/wp/ details the exact curricula and trainings at each school, along with contact information and an overview of every university.
"A patient-centric ethos is being drowned out by politics and activism," Jacobson said, adding that CRT being pushed on medical students is particularly alarming even compared to other areas of higher learning.
"Because there are only just over 150 accredited medical schools in the U.S., and they are so hard to get into, students really have no options. Unlike universities and colleges, where students may be able to avoid a race-obsessed campus climate, with medical schools students have to submit to race-focused medical education or give up their career hopes," Jacobson said.
"We have analyzed CRT-related training in colleges and universities and elite private K-12. As bad as those institutions have become, things are much worse in medical schools because the stakes are so high. Patient care and people's lives are at risk when doctors and medical providers view patients as proxies for racial or ethnic groups in sociological and political battles," he continued. "Every person has the right to be treated equally as an individual, based on his or her medical condition, without societal racial politics influencing treatment. Yet increasingly we see the medical establishment, including the American Medical Association, demanding that medical students and physicians become race-focused activists."
The subjects of mandatory training and coursework are worded and phrased differently at individual schools, but use terms including "anti-racism," "cultural competency," "equity," "implicit bias," "DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion" and critical race theory, according to criticalrace.org.betasites.soundst.com/wp/.
For example, the study found that Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University’s Department of Surgery will "assess and improve upon the current state of surgical trainee evaluation to eliminate the impact of implicit and explicit bias."
University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine pushes incoming students to participate in "the Common Read Program to learn more about racial biases in medicine," according to the study. The University of Illinois College of Medicine has a "Medical School Curriculum" subcommittee which will "plan the summer anti-racism reading/discussion group for incoming students and plan roll out across all phases" and "focus on reviewing the current curriculum content in all phases to remove biases and inaccuracies, identify deficiencies/omission… and to continue to incorporate the social determinants of health into the materials being taught," the study found.
But these are only a small sample of the plethora of examples found by criticalrace.org.betasites.soundst.com/wp/.
"The ongoing damage to medical education and practice should be a wake-up call to lawmakers, since so much of medical school education and medicine is funded directly or indirectly through the government. The incoming House of Representatives should hold hearings on the destructive racialization of medical schools and medicine," Jacobson said.
criticalrace.org.betasites.soundst.com/wp/ previously found that at least 236 colleges or universities of 500 examined have some form of mandatory student training or coursework on ideas related to CRT. Defenses of CRT-associated materials have ranged from outright denying CRT is being taught, to claiming that the underlying ideas are key to creating an inclusive educational environment.
criticalrace.org.betasites.soundst.com/wp/ is a project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation, a non-profit devoted to campus free speech and academic freedom.
The Legal Insurrection Foundation (of which criticalrace.org.betasites.soundst.com/wp/ is a project of) filed this complaint. The following report was originally published in Fox News:
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EXCLUSIVE — A civil rights complaint was filed against the Providence Public School District with the U.S. Department of Education on Monday over a program offering student loan forgiveness to new teachers that is exclusively available to non-White educators.
The complaint claims that Providence Public School District is “engaged in a continuing violation and an ongoing pattern or practice of discrimination” with a student loan forgiveness program for newly and recently hired educators that is only available to non-White applicants, billed as the “Educator of Color Loan Forgiveness Program.”
The Providence Public School District advertises that recipients can have up to $25,000 of college loans forgiven once the teacher completes three consecutive years of teaching in the district. The eligibility requirements indicate recipients must “identify as Asian, Black, Indigenous, Latino, biracial, or multi-racial.”
“Discrimination against non-White applicants is just as unlawful as discrimination against Black or other non-White applicants. There is no good form of racial discrimination,” the complaint states.
The Legal Insurrection Foundation, a Rhode Island-based, nonprofit investigative and research group that fights discrimination in education, filed the complaint – which has been obtained by Fox News Digital – to the Office for Civil Rights of the Dept. of Education.
“PPSD does not even attempt to hide its racially discriminatory practices. To the contrary, PPSD brags about treating white applicants less favorably than non-white applicants. The unlawful discriminatory provisions of the program are advertised on multiple platforms, including on the PPSD’s website and hiring portal. The program is a key part of PPSD’s hiring efforts, and already has processed dozens of applicants on this discriminatory basis,” the complaint states. “The program violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and a variety of state law anti-discrimination statutes. ”
The Providence Public School District did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cornell Law School professor and Legal Insurrection Foundation president William A. Jacobson wants to get in touch with any teachers who were shut out of, or did not apply, to this loan forgiveness program because of their race or ethnicity. He has also called for the “discriminatory practices be discontinued immediately.”
“The Providence Public School District’s discriminatory loan forgiveness program is one of the most brazen racial preferences we have seen anywhere. They don’t even try to hide it. They seem proud to discriminate. The promotional materials make clear that White educators need not apply for this hiring incentive and employment benefit,” Jacobson told Fox News Digital.
“Racial discrimination in hiring and employment is unlawful and morally reprehensible. The answer for past racial discrimination is equal protection and fairness, not more or different discrimination,” he continued. “The discriminatory loan forgiveness program is a pure racial preference, just check a box and you are eligible or not. It reduces people to the color of their skin or ethnicity, and doesn’t even try to take into account their individual life experiences.”
Jacobson believes “there are legally right and legally wrong ways to achieve diversity” and Providence Public Schools took the wrong route.
“Outreach to expand the pool of applicants and examining the systems to weed out bias to ensure equal treatment are permissible. Conditioning hiring incentives and employment benefits based on which racial or ethnic box is checked is the legally wrong way to do it,” he said. “The Providence Public Schools and the Rhode Island Foundation should have known better than to make hiring incentives and employment benefits only available to certain racial and ethnic groups. Each entity has anti-discrimination policies, yet this program is openly discriminatory.”
According to the complaint, the Rhode Island Foundation, a tax-exempt entity, funds the “Educator of Color Loan Forgiveness Program.”
Jacobson, who is particularly irked because the PPSD receives millions of dollars in federal funding, called for the district to make the program retroactively available to people hired since the program started that were excluded from consideration on the basis of race or ethnicity.
“That will not compensate people who never applied because of the discriminatory provisions, but it would be a good start. If that means the Providence schools and Rhode Island Foundation have to put forth additional funding, it’s the least they could do,” Jacobson said.
PPSD is the largest public school district in Rhode Island, and serves roughly 24,000 students across 41 schools, according to the complaint.
“Because PPSD receives federal funding, [Office of Civil Rights] had the power and obligation to make PPSD stop and to impose whatever remedial relief is necessary,” the complaint states.
The Legal Insurrection Foundation also publishes the Legal Insurrection website.
Fox News’ Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.
