UNIVERSITY: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Scholarships

Investigations

Number of states: 48

Number of colleges and universities: 127

Number of identity-based or DEI focused scholarships: 609

SUMMARY

Throughout the country, universities commonly distribute scholarships to students based on immutable characteristics, commitment to social or racial justice, and/or adherence to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The purpose of this report is to expose these practices as well as provide an archive or snap shot in time.

While President Trump’s Executive Orders have incentivized universities to take down webpages and cease their DEI based scholarships and programs, this does not mean that these institutions are ending these practices permanently—or even ending them at all.

Therefore, we have decided to highlight the scholarships and DEI-based programs in higher education, both past and present. This report contains both current and archived university webpages that feature scholarships which state that eligibility is based on race or a “preferred” identity, LGBTQ+ status, or a commitment to advancing DEI, racial justice, or social justice.

Unfortunately, some universities only give accepted and current students access to scholarship offerings through an online portal such as “ScholarshipUniverse.” Additionally, programs and colleges have received grant funding from state and federal agencies earmarked specifically for identity or race-based scholarships or trainings. These universities are not included in this report at this time.

Below are a handful of examples from around the country, followed by a non-comprehensive list of universities and colleges by state, which include links to scholarships that currently, or in the recent past, were set aside for identity-based or DEI focused awards.

Also included in the list of schools are Office for Civil Rights Complaints filed by the Equal Protection Project against universities for allegedly giving out scholarships that violate civil rights protections. [These universities and scholarships have also been included in the total numbers at the top of the page.]

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • University of California, Berkeley’s Student Environmental Resource Center scholarships include an Environmentalists of Color Scholarship for students who “identify as POC [People of Color]” and are “passionate about Environmentalism,” and the Brian Gialketsis SERQueer Scholarship for “queer identifying” students who are “passionate about Environmentalism.”
  • Naropa University’s (CO) support page includes making donations to the university’s “Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Scholarship” and its “Psychedelic Studies BIPOC Scholarship.”
  • Clark Atlanta University (GA) received a $2,684,494 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the School of Education’s Increasing the African American STEM Teacher Workforce program which features scholarships (between 19-38 total) which include tuition and fees, up to $3,000 in quarterly stipends, and an “annual salary supplement on top of their teaching salary equal to or more than $12,000.”
  • Southern Illinois University’s Vice Chancellor for Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Awards and Scholarships page lists numerous scholarships for African-Americans/minority students such as the “African-American Achievement Scholarship,” “Black Undergrad Education Scholarship,” and the “Phoenix Cannabis Production Scholarship.” A $1,000 scholarship called the “George Floyd Equity and Justice Scholarship” requires applicants to write an essay about “what they have learned from the issues or national response associated with the death of George Floyd.”
  • Indiana University’s School of Education offers the Patricia Payne Scholarship for Teacher Candidates which states that “special consideration will be given to underrepresented populations” and that “preference will be given to African American students who intend to teach in traditional public schools.”
  • University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science offers the Iribe Initiative for Inclusion and Diversity in Computing (I4C) scholarship for students to “attend select identity-based conferences in the tech space.”
  • The University of Vermont’s Amy Wise HDFS Scholarship – Racial Equity is awarded to “UVM students who are BIPOC” in an effort to “a) increase racial diversity of students majoring in HDFS, b) redress – at least to a small extent – historical and current racial inequities, and c) acknowledge and attempt to lessen the additional challenges students who are BIPOC face as part of a predominantly white college campus in a predominantly white state.”
  • Western Technical College’s 40 Acres & A Mule Project Scholarship states that applicants “must be a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) Western student.”

EXAMPLES

SACRAMENTO STATE UNIVERSITY (CA)

Sacramento State University’s Cooper-Woodson College Enhancement Program’s George Floyd Grant Endowment offers “financial support for students who are currently experiencing a trauma crisis while attending Sacramento State University.”

The “requirements” section asks applicants, “Is your crisis related to a death in family, due to social injustice i.e. law enforcement?” and “Is your crisis related to a hate crime?” It also asks applicants to “provide a detailed explanation of the trauma crisis you are experiencing. In addition, include supporting documentation related to any of the areas (listed above) that speak to your area of need. i.e., obituary, judiciary system fines, eviction notice, tech materials needed for class listed on syllabus, etc.”

(Special Process) George Floyd Grant Endowment – Sacramento StateDownload

NAROPA UNIVERSITY (CO)

Naropa University’s support page includes designating gifts for the “Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Scholarship” that is a “transformative initiative designed to support and uplift students who champion these essential values.” The description states that, through support of the scholarship, “we are dismantling those barriers and empowering deserving students from underrepresented communities to pursue their academic dreams.”

Additionally, as part of the university’s “commitment to help promote diversity, equity and access in the emerging field of psychedelic studies,” the “Psychedelic Studies BIPOC Scholarship Fund” supports “qualified professionals enrolled in Naropa University’s psychedelic studies programs” and “preference is given to those qualified enrolled professionals who are members of historically underrepresented groups, as well as trainees who serve these communities.”

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER (CO)

The University of Colorado Denver’s College of Architecture and Planning (CAP) features Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) programming which “affirms that its mission must actively adopt, celebrate, and promote justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) for all people in all places.” The college states that it is committed to “enhancing diversity and representation in our student body, faculty, and staff, “applying JEDI principles to how we teach and learn,” and “supporting JEDI principles in allied professions.”

According to CAP’s “JEDI Strategic Goals,” the college seeks to “enhance representation in the student body” through a variety of “objectives” and “actions” such as growing its “JEDI scholarship fund to be able to increase equity of access to our programs,” implementing “effective recruitment strategies with an intentional focus on those who are disadvantaged, minorities, and students of color,” identifying “top applicants through a holistic process, with underrepresented students receiving additional scholarship funding consideration,” and adding new scholarships “for undergraduate Transfer and First-Generation students as well as for school districts with historically high populations of students of color.”

The college created new scholarships “to recruit and retain students, focusing on underrepresented students and communities and those who incorporate the values and practices of JEDI” such as the Parikh Diversity in Design Scholarship.

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY (IL)

Southern Illinois University’s Vice Chancellor for Anti-Racist, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Awards and Scholarships page includes a list of scholarships such as the “African-American Achievement Scholarship,” the “Black Undergrad Education Scholarship,” the “Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois (DFI)” fellowship, and the “SIUC Minority Scholarship Fund.”

The webpage lists over 35 scholarships labeled preferred or exclusively for African American and minority students.

The university also lists two different “George Floyd Equity and Justice” scholarships that focus on promoting diversity on campus. Incoming freshman are required to “submit an essay about what they have learned from the issues or national response associated with the death of George Floyd.”

Another one titled “Phoenix Cannabis Production Scholarship” states that “preference will be given to an applicant who is African-American, Hispanic, or other underrepresented population.” Applicants “must submit an essay discussing the impact of the cannabis industry and the scholarship of the future.”

Awards and Scholarships _ Diversity _ SIUDownload

INDIANA UNIVERISTY (IN)

Indiana University’s School of Education offers the Patricia Payne Scholarship for Teacher Candidates which states that “special consideration will be given to underrepresented populations, including but not limited to financially challenged students, and/or students with diverse cultural experiences” and that “preference will be given to African American students who intend to teach in traditional public schools.”

The scholarship is named after Indianapolis Public Schools’ Director of the Office of Racial Equity, Dr. Patricia Payne. A district post on Instagram states that the scholarship in her name is for teacher candidates “of color who will teach in a traditional public school.”

Indiana University’s Elder Watson Diggs Scholarship is awarded to Undergraduate or Graduate School of Education students involved with “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility practices or research, and have demonstrated financial need” and states that “preference [is] given to underrepresented populations.” Students are required to “submit evidence of involvement with diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.”

UNIVERSITIES

The following is not a comprehensive list. As universities continue to remove webpages, links may be taken down or redirected. These will be updated whenever possible.

An * denotes that an archived page has been used because that institution has removed the specific webpage.

ALABAMA

Auburn University

Troy University

ALASKA

University of Alaska Fairbanks

ARIZONA

Arizona State University

University of Arizona

ARKANSAS

University of Arkansas

University of Central Arkansas

CALIFORNIA

Bakersfield College

California Polytechnic Institute*

California State University – Long Beach

Chabot College

  • STEM Scholarships
    • Smart Cookie Undergraduate Scholarship
    • Latinos in Tech Scholarship
    • Learner Tutoring Innovators of Color in STEM Scholarship
    • HCAC Scholarship
    • 2025 Microsoft Scholarship
    • Chicana Latina Foundation

Loyola Marymount University

Sacramento State University

San Diego State University

San Francisco State University

Santa Clara University

University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

University of San Diego

COLORADO

Community College of Denver

  • CCD Foundation Scholarships
    • Credit Union of Denver ‘Doing Life with You’ Scholarship
    • The Katerina Caballero Lanfranco Memorial Beca
    • Organization of Chinese Americans Scholarship
    • PEO Chapter GP Scholarship
    • Wana Brands Foundation ‘Close The Gap’ Scholarship

Metropolitan State University of Denver

Naropa University

  • Scholarships
    • John W. Cobb Scholarship in Civic Engagement and Social Justice

University of Colorado Boulder

University of Colorado Denver

University of Northern Colorado

Western Colorado University

CONNECTICUT

Connecticut State Community College

Sacred Heart University

University of Connecticut

University of Hartford

DELAWARE

University of Delaware

FLORIDA

Florida International University

University of West Florida

GEORGIA

Clark Atlanta University

Georgia State University

HAWAI’I

University of Hawai’i at Hilo

University of Hawai’i at Manoa

IDAHO

Idaho State University

ILLINOIS

DePaul University

Dominican University

Loyola University Chicago

Oakton College

Northwestern University*

Southern Illinois University

University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign

Waubonsee Community College

Western Illinois University

INDIANA

Butler University

Indiana University

Indiana University Columbus

Indiana University Indianapolis

  • Equal Protection Project Civil Rights Complaint
    • CVR’s Barrier-Busting Scholarship
    • Herron School of Art + Design
      • Alpha Blackburn Scholarship for the Arts
    • School of Liberal Arts
      • Matthew Crenshaw Africana Studies Scholarship
      • Turner-Wright Scholarship in Africana Studies
    • School of Science
      • Biology Tah-Tah Self Achievement Award
      • McBride Family Equity Scholarship

Indiana University Kokomo

IOWA

Drake University

Iowa State University

University of Iowa

University of Northern Iowa

KANSAS

Kansas State University

University of Kansas

KENTUCKY

Morehead State University

  • Gender Studies
    • Branham Scholarship
    • McKay LGBT Scholarship
    • Spartman Skaggs Pride Scholarship

University of Louisville

Western Kentucky University

LOUISIANA

Louisiana State University

MAINE

Bowdoin College

The University of Maine at Augusta

MARYLAND

University of Maryland Baltimore County

MASSACHUSETTS

Boston University

Salem State University

University of Massachusetts Amherst

MICHIGAN

Calvin University

Grand Valley State University

Michigan State University

MINNESOTA

Bemidji State University

Minnesota State University Mankato

Minnesota State University Moorehead

St. Cloud State University

University of Minnesota

University of St. Thomas

Winona State University

MISSISSIPPI

Mississippi State University

The University of Southern Mississippi

University of Mississippi (Ole Miss)

MISSOURI

University of Missouri

University of Missouri – Kansas City

MONTANA

University of Montana

NEBRASKA

University of Nebraska Omaha

NEVADA

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

  • Office of Student Diversity Programs
    • Consolidated Students of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (CSUN) and Student Diversity Programs (SDP), Indigenous Community RISE (Reaching Indigenous Student Excellence) Scholarship
    • CSUN & SDP Justice for Black Lives Scholarship
    • CSUN & SDP LatinX Comunidad and Empowerment Scholarship
    • CSUN Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA) Empowerment and Advocacy Scholarship

University of Nevada, Reno

  • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Initiatives
    • Alianza Scholarship
    • Emmy Sepulveda Pulvirenti Endowed Scholarship
    • Nathan G. Leipold Memorial Endowed Scholarship
    • Rebati Misra Endowed Scholarship in Materials Science and Engineering

NEW HAMPSHIRE

University of New Hampshire

NEW JERSEY

Ramapo College of New Jersey

Rutgers University – New Brunswick

NEW MEXICO

University of New Mexico

NEW YORK

Fordham University

Rochester Institute of Technology

State University of New York – New Paltz

Stony brook University

NORTH CAROLINA

North Carolina State University

University of North Carolina School of the Arts

NORTH DAKOTA

Minot State University

North Dakota State University

University of North Dakota

OHIO

Baldwin Wallace University

Miami University

OREGON

University of Oregon

PENNSYLVANIA

Community College of Philadelphia

Pennsylvania State University

  • Educational Equity Scholarships (List of sample scholarships below)
    • Ajay and Paayal Nair Social Justice Scholarship
    • Berquist Family Bunton-Waller Scholarship
    • Suzanne P. Paterno Diversity Scholarship

University of Pittsburgh

Thomas Jefferson University

RHODE ISLAND

Brown University

SOUTH CAROLINA

University of South Carolina

TENNESSEE

University of Memphis

TEXAS

Dallas College

Stephen F. Austin University

UTAH

University of Utah

VERMONT

University of Vermont

VIRGINIA

University of Virginia

Virginia Commonwealth University

WASHINGTON

University of Washington

WEST VIRGINIA

West Virginia University

WISCONSIN

Mid-State Technical College

University of Wisconsin – La Crosse

University of Wisconsin – Madison

University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee

University of Wisconsin – Platteville

University of Wisconsin – River Falls

Western Technical College

WYOMING

University of Wyoming