U of Minnesota dragged for ‘inexcusable’ internship program open to only non-white applicants

The University of Minnesota’s Office of Undergraduate Studies, a taxpayer-funded university program, is under fire after announcing that white students need not apply for its paid summer internship programs.

Bill Jacobson, president of the Equal Protection Project (EPP) of the Legal Insurrection Foundation called the “segregated” program “inexcusable.”

“The U. Minnesota segregated summer program is inexcusable, and it’s shocking that a major university would so openly make educational opportunities open only to students of a certain skin color,” Jacobson told Fox News Digital. “EqualProtect.org calls on the university immediately to open-up the summer program to students of all races, ethnicities, and skin colors.”

“There is no good form of racial discrimination,” Jacobson stated. “Depriving white students of educational opportunities does not promote racial or any other form of justice. U. Minnesota’s conduct is inexcusable.”

The Multicultural Summer Research Opportunities Program is an “intensive 10 week summer program in which undergraduate students of color work full-time with a faculty mentor on a research project,” according to UMN’s Office of Undergraduate Studies’ website.

To be eligible for the program, applicants must “identify as a Student of Color or Native American.”

“Each participant will receive a $6,000 stipend for personal and research expenses,” according to the website. “An additional research stipend is assigned to the faculty mentor for use by the student.”

The EPP is pushing back, sending on Friday an official federal civil rights complaint to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

The university’s “discriminatory practices” must be “discontinued immediately,” the letter said, according to Fox News Digital, and “all necessary enforcement action” must be taken.

Citing case law, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, the EPP argues that “UMN cannot demonstrate that the MSROP serves any legitimate governmental purpose, let alone an extraordinary one.”

“Classifications based on immutable characteristics like skin color and national origin ‘are so seldom relevant to the achievement of any legitimate state interest’ that government policies ‘grounded in such considerations are deemed to reflect prejudice and antipathy – a view that those in the burdened class are not as worthy or deserving as others,'” the complaint contends.

“We urge the U.S. Department of Education to fully investigate how pervasive segregationist practices are at U. Minnesota,” Jacobson told Fox News Digital. “Federal funding should not be used to promote educational opportunities restricted by skin color. Federal funding for U. Minnesota needs to be reevaluated.”

The EPP president called the program “immoral and illegal.”

“We all thought racial segregation in education as government policy ended with Brown v. Bd. of Education, but unfortunately it has been reborn under the umbrella of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” Jacobson said. “Whatever you call it, it’s immoral and illegal, and U. Minnesota needs to stop treating students differently based on skin color.”

“More racism,” he said, won’t fix racism.

“At EqualProtect.org we believe that the remedy for racism can never be more racism, it’s equal treatment of all persons without regard to race,” Jacobson stated. “Unfortunately, U. Minnesota appears to think that pitting students against each other based on race by making educational opportunities available based on skin color is the answer, but that just compounds the problems.”

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