Rochester Institute of Technology is facing a civil rights complaint over a scholarship for women and non-binary students pursing degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The Equal Protection Project lodged the complaint Wednesday with the U.S. Dept. of Education Office for Civil Rights. The organization is part of the conservative non-profit Legal Insurrection Foundation, which was founded by Cornell Law School professor William Jacobson.
It alleges that RIT’s Women in STEM Award is in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, a statute that prohibits discrimination based on sex under any education program or activity that receives federal financial assistance. It is one of six high school awards programs -- each worth $76,000 ($19,000 per year) for high school students pursuing an undergraduate degree immediately after high school graduation -- and the only one limited to a specific sex and gender identity.
“No statistical information concerning RIT’s justification for this program, based on STEM ‘interest’ among such persons at RIT, is set forth or suggested,” the complaint to the U.S. Dept. of Education Office for Civil Rights states.
One third of RIT’s student enrollment population is female, according to university data dating back to 2014. In about a decade the male to female student ratio narrowed by three percentage points. In the 2014-15 school year, 33% of enrolled students were female. In 2023-24, 36% were female.
“More women ... are applying to RIT than ever before, especially in STEM programs,” a 2022 article on the university’s website said, citing increases of around 25% in applications to engineering, technology, health sciences, and computing schools compared to the previous year, 2021.
In a fact sheet on Title IX and how it applies to scholarships, the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights states that "there may be limited circumstances in which a school may take affirmative action with respect to forms of financial assistance or programs to overcome the effects of conditions which resulted in limited participation in its education program or activity by persons of a particular sex.”
This action is part of a larger campaign by the Legal Insurrection Foundation and its Equal Protection Project against affirmative-action related programs and policies at higher education institutions. EPP has filed a litany of complaints over the years alleging discrimination over affirmative-action related programs. Recently, the group filed a complaint against Ithaca College over programing uplifting Black, Indigenous, students of color.
RIT faced a previous complaint about several of its programs to boost the participation of women in STEM fields. Mark Perry, a retired economics professor who taught at University of Michigan-Flint, filed that complaint. Perry has filed hundreds of similar complaints across the country and recently joined EPP.
A complaint filed with the Ed. Dept.’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is a different process from a lawsuit.
According to the OCR, when its office receives a complaint about “a sex-restricted scholarship or program, and in response, the school seeks to invoke its ability to engage in affirmative action, OCR will require the school to support its justification with a specific assessment of the facts and circumstances surrounding the scholarship or other program.”
Lawsuits, however, play out as civil matters in a court and would require the plaintiff to prove their claims.
A spokesperson with RIT said on Thursday that they do not comment on pending complaints and will not address any other previously resolved complaints at this point.
