The Department of Justice announced a probe into CUNY‘s Black Male Initiative on Tuesday after a conservative legal organization filed a complaint alleging discrimination against women and white men.
The Black Male Initiative, a program started in the CUNY system 21 years ago, favors “select non-white minorities” through its race-based recruitment, the DOJ alleged in a press release published Tuesday.
The program is catered to “support the inclusion and educational success of students from groups that are severely underrepresented in higher education.” It specifically highlights African, black, Caribbean, and Hispanic students on its website.
“Race can never play a role when deciding how to distribute educational resources or opportunities,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in the release.
“This Justice Department will not tolerate universities directing educational benefits to certain students over others based on their race.”
The Equal Protection Project filed a complaint in early June accusing the program of violating federal civil rights laws by giving preference to students on the basis of race.
William Jacobson, the founder of the EPP, told The Post that the advocacy group is “pleased” to see the DOJ “acting on our complaint.”
“Every student deserves equal treatment, and recruiting for educational opportunities never should be dependent on race or ethnicity,” Jacobson said.
The mission of the Black Male Initiative is to bolster the enrollment, retention, grade point average and graduation rate of minority male students in 22 of CUNY’s 26 institutions.
In 2012, the Obama-era Department of Education determined that the initiative was consistent with federal law — a decision that Jacobson balked at.
“The discrimination in the program should have been stopped almost 15 years ago. Only a legally ridiculous 2012 decision by the Obama Department of Education allowed the discrimination to continue. It is time for DOJ to correct this injustice,” Jacobson told The Post before the DOJ’s investigation.
The Post reached out to CUNY for comment.
When previously asked about the EPP’s pending complaint, a CUNY spokesperson told The Post that the program “is open to all students regardless of race, gender or national origin.”
The EPP admitted in its complaint that the initiative has educational benefits, but argued they should apply to all students needing assistance regardless of their racial or ethnic background.
The EPP’s complaint said such programs are on even shakier ground after the US Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that affirmative action programs considering an applicant’s race in college and university admissions was unconstitutional.
EPP has filed cases against more than 120 institutions challenging over 550 race-based scholarships and programs — including at the State University of New York campuses, Fordham and Rutgers universities, and the New York State Education Department.
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