LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The U.S Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into the University of Kentucky.
UK is one of 45 universities being investigated for allegedly engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs. The department said in a news release Friday that the universities are accused of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by partnering with the “PH.D Project,” an organization that provides doctoral students with insights into obtaining a Ph.D degree but limits eligibility based on race.
“We are aware of the release this morning from the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights,” a university spokesperson said in a written statement Friday. “We have not received any official notification of this review so we cannot comment further. We will continue to monitor this issue moving forward.”
The investigation also comes as a House Bill 4 moves through the Kentucky legislature. The bill, which passed the House earlier this month, would prohibit differential treatment in hiring, admissions, scholarships, and contracts on the basis of religion, race, sex, color or national origin.
UK moved to close its DEI office last year in anticipation of the bill.
The push to eradicate DEI practices was a key priority of President Donald Trump’s second term. Last month, the Department of Education issued a memo warning America’s schools and colleges that they could lose federal money over “race-based preferences” in admissions, scholarships or any aspect of student life.
“Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “We will not yield on this commitment.”
Outside of UK, the group of 45 colleges facing scrutiny over ties to the PhD Project include major public universities such as Arizona State, Ohio State and Rutgers, along with prestigious private schools like Yale, Cornell, Duke and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The full list of universities under investigation is below:
- Arizona State University – Main Campus
- Boise State University
- Cal Poly Humboldt
- California State University – San Bernadino
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Clemson University
- Cornell University
- Duke University
- Emory University
- George Mason University
- Georgetown University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- Montana State University-Bozeman
- New York University (NYU)
- Rice University
- Rutgers University
- The Ohio State University – Main Campus
- Towson University
- Tulane University
- University of Arkansas – Fayetteville
- University of California-Berkeley
- University of Chicago
- University of Cincinnati – Main Campus
- University of Colorado – Colorado Springs
- University of Delaware
- University of Kansas
- University of Kentucky
- University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
- University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
- University of Nebraska at Omaha
- University of New Mexico – Main Campus
- University of North Dakota – Main Campus
- University of North Texas – Denton
- University of Notre Dame
- University of NV – Las Vegas
- University of Oregon
- University of Rhode Island
- University of Utah
- University of Washington-Seattle
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- University of Wyoming
- Vanderbilt University
- Washington State University
- Washington University in St. Louis
- Yale University
A statement from Ohio State said the university “does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity or any other protected class, and our PhD programs are open to all qualified applicants.”
A message sent to the PhD Project was not immediately returned.
Six other colleges are being investigated for awarding “impermissible race-based scholarships,” the department said, and another is accused of running a program that segregates students on the basis of race.
The Education Department said those schools are: Grand Valley State University, Ithaca College, the New England College of Optometry, the University of Alabama, the University of Minnesota, the University of South Florida and the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa.
An initial press release from the Education Department erroneously identified the University of Tulsa as one of the schools under investigation.
The Feb. 14 memo from Trump’s Republican administration was a sweeping expansion of a 2023 Supreme Court decision that barred colleges from using race as a factor in admissions.
That decision focused on admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, but the Education Department said it will interpret the decision to forbid race-based policies in any aspect of education, both in K-12 schools and higher education.
In the memo, Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, had said schools’ and colleges’ diversity, equity and inclusion efforts have been “smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming and discipline.”
The memo is being challenged in federal lawsuits from the nation’s two largest teachers’ unions. The suits say the memo is too vague and violates the free speech rights of educators.
