As students begin to repopulate campus, Colorado State University administration continues to reckon with a federal civil rights complaint filed against the university June 23. Brought by conservative nonprofit law organization America First Legal, the complaint alleges CSU’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and President Donald Trump’s January Executive Order 14173.
The complaint comes as dozens of universities navigate similar federal complaints and investigations since Trump took office, with DEI programs, LGBTQIA+ education and allegations of antisemitism on university campuses remaining top targets for the administration. Among the most high-profile of such investigations is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights accusation that Columbia University acted “with deliberate indifference towards student-on-student harassment of Jewish students.”
Columbia will now pay the federal government over $220 million over three years to settle the administration’s investigations, though CSU’s situation bears more resemblance to several other complaints filed around the country. Most pertinently, Cornell University is facing a federal OCR complaint from conservative think tank America First Policy Institute, alleging the university discriminated in hiring and restricted students from scholarship opportunities on the basis of race, sex and ideological statements.
“President Trump’s Executive Order provided the tools to the Attorney General and the Secretary of Education to ensure that institutions that receive taxpayer funding comply with the law. AFL will continue to fight illegal and discriminatory policies in higher education and defend the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.” -America First Legal press statement
AFL’s complaints lodged with the OCR are similar in sentiment but even more far-reaching, citing CSU’s course catalog, hiring practices, student DEI training modules and the university’s bias reporting system as examples of discrimination.
“Colorado State University is aware that a complaint was submitted to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights by America First Legal,” a university statement to The Collegian reads. “As with any complaint filed with a governmental agency, the university takes the matter seriously. We are continuing to review the issues raised and will respond as appropriate and necessary.”
The same statement was issued in response to the complaint’s original announcement, despite The Collegian’s request for additional comment for this story.
It is important to note that although AFL’s complaint was officially submitted to the OCR, the U.S. ED must elect to investigate the claims before action can be taken against the university. Further, the Trump administration’s own efforts to dismantle the U.S. ED have led to reported inefficiencies within the department in addressing OCR complaints.
In the three months following Trump’s March executive order declaring sweeping layoffs within the U.S. ED, the OCR dismissed 3,424 complaints, resolved 96 due to insufficient evidence and processed another 290 through settlement and assistance.
Contrarily, the last three months of the Biden administration’s tenure saw 2,527 cases dismissed, 449 remedied through resolution agreements for change, 146 mediated and no violation in 119.
Experts, civil rights advocates and former OCR officials alike attribute this “diminution of work output” to the aforementioned layoffs, with seven of the 12 regional OCR offices around the country ordered to be closed. Though a Massachusetts judge soon declared workers able to return to work, the department now faces a backlog of cases.
“President Trump’s Executive Order provided the tools to the Attorney General and the Secretary of Education to ensure that institutions that receive taxpayer funding comply with the law,” AFL’s press release said. “AFL will continue to fight illegal and discriminatory policies in higher education and defend the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”
AFL initially responded to The Collegian’s request for additional comment but ultimately neglected to provide an updated statement.
Officially, OCR complaints are dismissed if it lacks sufficient information, if the office is unable to get in contact with the complainant or if the institution at the center of the complaint does not receive federal funding. As a Carnegie R1 institution, CSU accepted $436 million in federal funding in the previous year alone, meaning university administration’s hopes to avoid legal action rests with the OCR’s recent inefficiencies.
Even before the complaint’s issuance, CSU announced measures designed to bring the university into compliance with the Trump administration’s guidelines, including removing references to DEI on public websites, adjusting class programming and shifting hiring practices. With a federal investigation now looming, further preventative measures are likely.
Reach Sam Hutton at news@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
