Click to View PDF

(Sterling, Virginia) Roger Clegg, President of the Center for Equal Opportunity, praised the consent decree announced today by the U.S. Department of Justice and Southern Illinois University, ending the racial exclusivity of three graduate programs at the school.  The Justice Department’s investigation had been prompted by a complaint sent by CEO to the department; CEO had first tried to persuade the school to open the programs up to students of all races and ethnicities, but the university “moved too slowly and erratically,” said Clegg.

“The Justice Department and Education Department have each now acted against racially exclusive programs,” said Clegg.  “They agree that such programs cannot be squared with the Supreme Court’s requirement in the University of Michigan cases that students be given ‘individualized consideration’ rather than treated as automatically worthy or unworthy based on skin color and what country their ancestors came from.”

Clegg added that the overwhelming consensus among universities has also been to end racially exclusive programs.  “We are sorry that it took the Justice Department to persuade Southern Illinois that a racially exclusive program is untenable, but we are glad that the school’s foot-dragging has been the exception rather than the rule.”

The Center for Equal Opportunity is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational organization that focuses on civil rights, bilingual education, and immigration and assimilation issues.