University removed the fellowships from its website last year

 

BY DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ

david.horowitz@bgdailybnews.com

Western Kentucky University last year began phasing out two fellowships serving minorities after complaints were filed with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, the university confirmed. Current fellowship recipients are allowed to complete their programs, according to WKU.

Previous recipients told the Daily News that receiving one of these fellowships provided them educational opportunities that would otherwise have been inaccessible. One alumnus who is highlighted for his achievements on WKU’s website, Roderick Maul, described a program that marked a turning point in his life.

WKU stated that it’s now unaware of “any program on campus that meets the generally agreed upon criteria of a (diversity, equity and inclusion) program” when asked if it removed any other program last year that’d be considered a DEI program.

WKU has stopped offering the Distinguished Minority Fellow Program, which helped fund graduate degrees and provided employment opportunities for students with a minority status, according to a now-defunct WKU webpage archived September 2023. A minority status was required. (An archived DMF flyer listed these as “African American, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, two or more races, or Hispanic/Latino.”)

The university also removed the Athletics Minority Fellowship, which helped fund undergraduate scholarships and provide administrative experience with WKU Athletics for students interested in careers focused on college athletics, according to an archived WKU Athletics webpage. One requirement was “identify(ing) as an underrepresented minority,” according to the webpage.

The Equal Protection Project, an initiative of the nonprofit Legal Insurrection Foundation, filed a complaint in September 2023 alleging that both fellowships discriminated racially. The federal Office of Civil Rights (OCR) stated in an April 25 letter that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits racial discrimination by organizations that receive federal financial assistance, including WKU, and that it was opening up an investigation into the AMF.

The federal office added that a separate complainant had already targeted the DMF, so it couldn’t open a duplicative complaint.

The university told the federal office April 30 that it had removed AMF and references to it on the university website, according to a Dec. 10, 2024, letter from the federal office to the Equal Protection Project. Pages advertising the DMF no longer exist on the university website.

Asked about the two programs, the university confirmed the removal of two fellowships.

“In light of a shifting legal landscape, colleges and universities nationwide have reassessed and, when necessary, modified their scholarship offerings. After receiving complaints from the Office of Civil Rights concerning two fellowships, the university reviewed its scholarship programs to ensure compliance,” WKU told the Daily News in a statement. “As part of addressing these concerns, the university gradually phased out the two fellowships – one offered through athletics and the other through the graduate school – while allowing current recipients to complete their programs.”

As a result, the Office of Civil Rights notified the university last year that the complaints had been dismissed, according to WKU. The university added that it “remains committed to being a place where everyone who comes here to study, work, visit or compete feels welcomed and supported.”

Equal Protection Project Founder William A. Jacobson, a law professor at Cornell, stated that the project’s goal is “to promote equality and equal protection of the law in higher education by challenging discriminatory practices.”

“In almost all cases, the institution responds by opening up the program or scholarship to all students without regard to race, color, or national origin,” Jacobson told the Daily News. “That is the result we hoped for in challenging the Fellowships at WKU. It is unfortunate that rather than removing the discrimination WKU removed the fellowships entirely.”

The DMF provided “up to nine hours of face-to-face tuition costs for the completion of a primary graduate degree” for fall and spring, according to the program flyer. Students also became eligible for a stipend of at least $15,000 per academic year “in association with a graduate assistanceship,” along with WKU Graduate Assistant Health Insurance, the flyer stated.

AMF recipients received a $2,000 scholarship per academic year and experience across areas of athletic administration, according to the fellowship application.

Maul, a DMF recipient of the 2018-19 academic year, said the program had changed the trajectory of his life.

It enabled him to complete his master’s in social work at WKU; from the fellowship, he received mentorship, studied abroad in Africa, attended conferences and educational events, attained opportunities for research and helped numerous students who were experiencing a range of struggles. He’d eventually become a licensed therapist and assist other DMF fellows as he completed his Doctor of Education at WKU, graduating in December 2023.

“I was able to be in a more secure and safe environment and also pursue my educational (…) goals,” he said about the DMF’s impacts on his life. “I was able to dispense my time to other groups of people because of the opportunity that was afforded to me.”

He expressed disapproval about WKU’s decision to remove the program.

“(I’m) disheartened,” he said about its removal. “Disgusted. I feel like it was vital to a lot of people who experienced some of the things that I experienced,” he said.

These, he said, are barriers that African Americans and other minority groups often face when trying to reach the same levels of success as their counterparts.

For Maul, a Black man, the DMF was the type of support that was rare as he attended underfunded, primarily Black schools when growing up in Alabama. There, school districts serving the most students of color received 8.1% less in local and state revenue per student than districts serving the fewest students of color, according to an analysis of 2019-20 data conducted by the The Education Trust, a college-access advocacy nonprofit. (That figure becomes 16% nationwide, according to the analysis.)

For Maria Hernandez, a DMF recipient from fall 2022 to spring 2024, the fellowship enabled her to afford her master’s in psychological sciences as a first-generation college student. She and her cousin were the first to attend college among their family, who are from Mexico, she said.

“So, when it came to just going to college or just getting any type of college degree, I had to kind of figure everything out on my own. “I didn’t have the know-how to do college.

“If it wasn’t for the (…) fellowship, I would not have gone and gotten my master’s degree in (psychological) sciences.”