UC scholarship is rebranded after lawsuit

A scholarship for Black students at UC San Diego is now available to anyone, regardless of race, after students and a right-leaning nonprofit organization sued the university on claims of discrimination this July.

- By ADAM ECHELMAN

UC SAN DIEGO students pack the campus on Sept. 25, the first day of classes.

(MEG MCLAUGHLIN San Diego Union-Tribune)

The plaintiffs argued that the scholarship fund violated a series of laws, including the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which was put in place to protect Black Americans in the South.

One of the students, Kai Peters, said he was denied access to the scholarship because he isn’t Black. Peters sent a statement to CalMatters through the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, the nonprofit plaintiff. He said his rejection is an example of “institutionalized racism” —a phrase that was created in part to characterize how government institutions discriminate against Black Americans.

“I don't see the irony,” said Joshua Thompson, an attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented the plaintiffs. “The idea is that we don't want government actors out forcing their discrimination.”

The Black Alumni Scholarship Fund for UC San Diego students is now called the Goins Alumni Scholarship Fund, named after founding donor Lennon Goins, according to a news release last week. Its website says each scholarship is worth $2,500 and that nearly 275 scholarships have been awarded since 2016.

The rebranded scholarship program is one of numerous initiatives in California that have come under scrutiny in the last two years. Last summer, the Supreme Court overturned precedent that allowed private universities in the state to use affirmative action, and this year, the Trump administration has ended numerous campus initiatives promoting diversity.

In March, the UC changed its hiring practices, banning its 10 campuses from requiring “diversity statements” as a condition for employment. Now those statements are voluntary.