U of M summer internship program was targeted by outside conservative activists

WASHINGTON — The University of Minnesota is among the latest targets of a legal campaign by organizations fighting affirmative action programs in the nation’s colleges and universities.

Since the 1980s the University of Minnesota offered Black and Native American students a paid summer internship program that aimed to address the underrepresentation of students of color at the graduate and professional level. The Multicultural Summer Research Opportunities Program allowed students to participate in faculty research programs.

About 10-weeks long and opened to 16 students this summer, the program came across the radar of William Jacobson, a Cornell University securities law professor who has founded a non-profit called the Equal Protection Project (EPP). The group says it is “devoted to the fair treatment of all persons without regard to race or ethnicity.”

“Our guiding principle is that there is no ‘good’ form of racism. The remedy for racism never is more racism,” the EPP says.

The EPP made a complaint last month the U.S. Department of Education and the University of Minnesota quickly renamed and relaunched the program so that all students could apply.

That did not satisfy Jacobson. He said he is concerned about how the university will implement the new program and “how are changes going to be implemented when you already have people signed up for the summer?”

“And what are they going to do about students who didn’t apply with the question about students who didn’t apply because they knew they would be excluded?” Jacobson asked. “Is it essentially just public relations?”

The University of Minnesota said it has no restrictions on race in its Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, which is open to undergraduates from every college and allows students to partner with a faculty member on research or creative projects. Nevertheless, Jacobson said the EPP plans to investigate other University of Minnesota programs for what he calls discriminatory policies based on ethnicity and race.

The university’s turnabout on the summer internship program also did not satisfy Republican members of the Minnesota congressional delegation.

They recently wrote a letter that was also signed by Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, to the U.S. Department of Education to complain about the program that no longer existed and demand the department investigate why the Multicultural Summer Research Opportunities Program was created. The lawmakers wrote the U.S. Department of Education because the university receives federal money.

“It is illegal and flat-out wrong for the University of Minnesota to authorize an internship program that explicitly excludes students of certain races,” said Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6^th District.

The Department of Education confirmed it had received the letter from Emmer, Owens and Reps. Pete Stauber, R-8^th District, Michelle Fischbach, R-7^th District, and Brad Finstad, R-1^st District. But it declined to say whether it would take further action and said it does not comment on complaints made to the department’s civil rights division.

Those who defend programs like the one the University of Minnesota has eliminated say they are necessary to combat historical and ongoing discrimination that results in a lack of opportunity for Black and Native American youth in the United States.

Mitchell Crusto, a law professor at Loyola University in New Orleans who grew up in the segregated South, said programs like the now defunct internship program “are needed to level the playing field to provide equal access to Black and Native American students many of whom come from disadvantaged communities.”

“Their disadvantage is from current conditions such as unequal funding of public schools and other challenges such as high unemployment in these communities,” Crusto said. “Their current disadvantage is compounded by historic mistreatment via segregation, racism, redlining, and the like.”

Legal challenges from the right to “racial preference” programs in academia are on the rise, with organizations like the Equal Protection Project becoming more involved in the filing of court cases and complaints. The EPP has also recently complained to SUNY-Albany about a project the school runs in conjunction with the Albany Public Library. The program offers fellowships to students of color at the university’s College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity.

The organization has also set in its sights a Missouri State University business boot camp for women and minorities at Missouri State University that excluded white males.

“We’re only three months old and we have already filed several complaints,” Jacobson said.

The EPP, which was established by Jacobson recently, is one project of a larger nonprofit Jacobson also founded called the Legal Insurrection Foundation, whose staff of attorneys includes a former employee of far-right activist group Project Veritas.

The foundation has been involved in a challenge to Harvard’s race-conscious admittance policy that’s at the U.S. Supreme Court. The plaintiffs in the suit say Harvard’s admittance policy discriminates against Asian Americans and the Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision on the case this month.

Another project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation, called CriticalRace.org, has compiled a database of universities that it says teach critical race theory, but also details all efforts at diversity and inclusion at a school.

For instance, Minneapolis’ Augsburg University was cited for its for plans to eliminate standardized testing as a requirement for admission and for establishing a site that lists all events and opportunities dedicated to Justice for George Floyd.