On April 9, 2025, Defending Education (DE) filed a complaint against Indiana University (IU) with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. DE claims IU is breaking Title VI, a law that bans race discrimination in programs that receive federal funds. DE also claims IU is violating the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, which bars government bodies, including public schools, from treating people differently because of their race.
IU Indianapolis’s School of Education offers the Patricia Payne Scholarship for future teachers. It states that “[p]reference will be given to African American students who intend to teach in traditional public schools.” IU’s Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion runs the scholarship application process. It also lists other scholarships that favor students by race:
• The Johnson Underrepresented Student Scholarship: “Preference will be given to African American students.”
• The Bruce Shuck Family Native American Scholarship: preference “to students of Native American descent.”
• The Wilma A. and Charles E. Harry, IV Family Scholarship: “Preferences will be given to African American students.”
These scholarships hand out money based on race. That violates Title VI and the Equal Protection Clause. As the Supreme Court said in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023), “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.” And in 2015, the Department’s Office for Civil Rights found that an Illinois school district had broken the law by holding an assembly for Black students only.
Defending Education urges the Department to investigate every claim in its complaint, fix IU’s illegal policies and practices, and order the right remedies.
Read the full complaint below:
