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Some University of Missouri donors expressed dissatisfaction after being notified that race-based scholarships they had endowed must now be revised to allow applicants of all races following the Supreme Court’s ruling against affirmative action.
The donors felt “betrayed” that scholarships originally intended for minority students could no longer exclude white applicants.
“Institutions in Missouri must implement the Supreme Court’s decisions immediately. In today’s rulings, the Court held that there are no legitimate reliance interests created by past rulings that seemed to bless affirmative action,” attorney general Andrew Bailey’s letter read.
While some scholarships had legal clauses ensuring flexibility, over 50 donors disagreed with or could not be reached about changing the scholarships.
Experts warned that introducing politics into charitable funds is the “wrong path.”
“This has to be fought, not for political reasons but from a donor protection perspective … Once you get politics involved in how charitable funds are used, we’re really going down the wrong path,” philanthropy scholar Doug White said.
The university said it will comply with the law while trying to ensure scholarships still help as many students.
Some MU scholarships had explicitly prohibited white applicants, like ones for “minority” or “Hispanic” students.
“The university will always comply with the law, and we began taking action on our scholarships following the SCOTUS decision and the guidance from the Missouri attorney general. We have worked with donors, to the extent possible, to ensure the scholarships remain available to help as many students as possible,” University of Missouri Associate Director of Public Affairs Travis Zimpfer said.
The attorney general said Missouri institutions must immediately adopt “race-blind” admissions and other standards.
“There is thus no justification for Missouri institutions to ‘grandfather’ in existing programs that disfavor applicants based on race. All Missouri programs that make admitting decisions by disfavoring individuals based on race—not just college admissions, but also scholarships, employment, law reviews, etc.—must immediately adopt race-blind standards”, Bailey wrote.
Florida University Eliminates All DEI Positions https://t.co/TForvmI2pF
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 2, 2024
