UNIVERSITY: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Scholarships

April 24, 2025 in DEI & Merit

48

Number of States

128

Number of Colleges and UNiversities

613

Number of IdentiTy-Based or DEI Focused Scholarships

Executive 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

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.

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Arizona State University

University of Arizona

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

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

University of Hawai’i at Hilo

University of Hawai’i at Manoa

DePaul University

Dominican University

Illinois Wesleyan University

  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Scholarships
    • George “Gus” A. Hill Scholarship for Inclusion
    • Alumni Association Building Diversity Endowed Scholarship
    • Minor Myers, Jr. Memorial Scholarship
    • Public Service Scholarship – In memory of Janice Catherine Bradley ’74 and Beverly Ann Bowman-Lott ’75

Loyola University Chicago

Oakton College

Northwestern University*

Southern Illinois University

University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign

Waubonsee Community College

Western Illinois University

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

Kansas State University

University of Kansas

Morehead State University

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

University of Louisville

Western Kentucky University

University of Maryland Baltimore County

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

Ramapo College of New Jersey

Rutgers University – New Brunswick

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

Dallas College

Stephen F. Austin University

University of Vermont

West Virginia University

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