FIRST ON FOX: California’s top public university under fire for ‘LatinX’ and ‘Pilipinx’ race-based scholarship

By Fox News · Fox News

Cornell Law professor William A. Jacobson, founder of the Equal Protection Project, has filed a federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education 's civil rights office accusing the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) of running more than a dozen scholarships that exclude students based on race, sex or national origin. The 13 programs named in the complaint include awards limited to "LatinX" freshmen, "Pilipinx" students, "undocumented undergraduates," and female-only applicants. The filing claims those criteria violate Title VI and Title IX of federal civil-rights law, which bar discrimination by federally funded schools. "That race- and sex-based discriminatory scholarships exist at a major and highly visible public university is shocking," Jacobson told Fox News Digital. "UCLA should know better than to run scholarships or programs that treat students differently based on race, color, national origin, or sex." UC BERKELEY CLASS FOCUSES ON HOW ‘RACIAL SUPERIORITY’ SHAPES IMMIGRATION LAW, ANTI-ICE RHETORIC The UCLA Latino Alumni Association scholarship states it was created for "incoming LatinX freshmen and transfer students," while a Pilipino Alumni Association award is for students "who indicate their membership in the Pilipinx community." The Undocumented Alumni Association Scholarship restricts eligibility to undocumented students, and the Raza Women’s Alumni Scholarship gives preference to "incoming Latina freshmen and transfer students." That language stands in contrast to remarks by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said earlier this year that "no one says Latinx." Despite the governor’s disavowal of the term, UCLA, part of the UC system he oversees, still uses "LatinX" as an official eligibility label in a taxpayer-funded scholarship. Other programs cited include two scholarships for students of Armenian descent and a Deloitte Foundation award that supports "meritorious female students." The complaint argues that UCLA’s use of r…