Targeting diversity efforts

A scholarship for medical students on Southern Illinois University School of Medicine’s Springfield campus is the target of an Ivy League law professor’s ire because he says it discriminates against white and straight people.

William Jacobson is a Cornell University law professor and the founder of Legal Insurrection Foundation, a nonprofit conservative advocacy organization which focuses on free speech and academic freedom issues. He told Illinois Times he has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights because the $1,000 scholarship for fourth-year medical students is designated for underrepresented groups in medicine.

“We challenge educational practices which discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity,” Jacobson said. “On its face, it is discriminatory. It’s a little bit different than most of the ones we face, because not only does it discriminate based on race and ethnicity, it also discriminates based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Jacobson contends the scholarship’s prerequisite limiting applicants to certain racial groups and specific sexual identities violates students’ 14th Amendment right to equal protection under the law.

However, his complaint against SIU is not an isolated case. The Legal Insurrection Foundation launched the Equal Protection Project in 2023 and claims to have “challenged dozens of exclusionary fellowship programs, many of which are open only to nonwhites,” according to the LIF website.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that colleges could not give preference to underrepresented racial groups when considering whom to admit. Jacobson said his complaint is a logical follow-up to that case because creating racial preferences in scholarships is creating barriers for others.

“If you are Asian or white, you are not even eligible to apply, with the exception of if you happen to be (LGBTQ,)” he said.

But Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association, ascribes more sinister motives to Jacobson and others challenging diversity initiatives.

“It’s racism and it’s anger. It’s unfortunate that they feel threatened,” she said. “Obviously, there is an undertone of them feeling threatened about their position in society. And it’s quite unfortunate, and it saddens me greatly.”

The NMA, which Lawson leads, has 40,000 members and is the largest association of Black physicians in the United States.

“There’s not one profession – whether it’s attorneys, whether it’s doctors, whether it’s pharmacists, whether it’s nurses – who have met their diversity goals. Not one profession,” Lawson said. “It’s not surprising to me that this is an issue. We know that people exist in these institutions and structures that don’t believe certain folks deserve to be there.”

The SIU scholarship was created in 2022 and named in honor of Tracey Meares, who graduated from Springfield High School in 1984 with the highest grade point average but was denied the valedictorian title. She would have been the first Black valedictorian at SHS.

In 2022, Springfield Public Schools apologized to Meares for what was widely regarded as an act of racism. She was retroactively named valedictorian and a scholarship was created in her name at SIU’s medical school.

Meares, who is now a professor at Yale Law School, declined to discuss the complaint filed against the scholarship.

Her father, Bob Blackwell, issued this written statement to IT: “As the designated family spokesperson, I am aware of the complaint raised. Our only comment is as follows: ‘It is an honor to have such a scholarship named after our daughter, Tracey, particularly on the heels of our Springfield community’s recognition and reconciliation of her having been denied the valedictorian title.'”

Jacobson said he doesn’t know fellow Ivy League law professor Meares.

“I had never heard of her until this (case came up),” he said. “This is not about her. From everything I’ve read, she is a great person and probably deserves to have a scholarship named after her. But that scholarship can’t discriminate on the basis of race. That’s the issue.”

SIU spokesperson Rikeesha Phelon declined to comment on the complaint other than to say the matter is “under review.”

However, SIU has not been formally served with the complaint yet because it is still being reviewed by the Office of Civil Rights. The office has to evaluate the information that it receives to determine whether it constitutes a complaint that is subject to further investigation.

Dominican Sister Marcelline Koch, a founder of the Springfield Coalition on Dismantling Racism, was more outspoken.

“The Tracey Meares Representation Matters Scholarship is one of 74 scholarships offered by the school,” she said. “And some of those scholarships even focus on geographical areas. … The school gives preferences to students from particular areas. So, I find it interesting that the one scholarship that they have an issue with is this one. What do these folks fear? Do they fear diversity?”

Scott Reeder, a staff writer for Illinois Times, can be reached at sreeder@illinoistimes.com.

This article appears in The Wedding Issue 2024.