On April 9, 2025, Defending Education (DE) filed a complaint against the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. DE claims UC Berkeley is breaking Title VI, a law that bans race discrimination in programs that receive federal funds. DE also claims UC Berkeley is violating the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, which bars government bodies, including public schools, from treating people differently because of their race.
UC Berkeley has offered a $10,000 recurring scholarship for “Environmentalists of Color.” Its goal is to “financially support passionate students of color working in the environmental field.” The university’s Student Environmental Resource Center runs the scholarship. To apply, a student must “[i]dentify as a POC (Person of Color).”
That makes the scholarship a financial benefit given out based on race. A qualified, passionate student can be ineligible because of their skin color. That breaks 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.”
Defending Education urges the Department to investigate every claim in its complaint, fix UC Berkeley’s illegal policies and practices, and order the right remedies.
Read the full complaint below:
