After Affirmative Action was struck down by the Supreme Court last June, many universities have been slowly amending policies to stop discrimination of certain races. And apparently, some schools’ donors aren’t happy about it.
The University of Missouri, for instance, is facing backlash from dozens of financial supporters after ending their affirmative action policies in response to a letter from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
“I write to inform you that the United States Supreme Court has finally provided clarity about the practice—common among universities and some employers—of disfavoring certain applicants because of race,” Bailey stated in his letter. “Today’s Supreme Court decisions against Harvard and the University of North Carolina resolve this previous contradiction. These rulings make clear that disfavoring some applicants because of race is not only deeply unpopular; it is unconstitutional. As the Court put it today, ‘Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it’.”
Since then, Mizzou has acted accordingly and put an end to scholarships that discriminated against applicants based on race, the majority of which had been earmarked for non-white students.
According to the Daily Caller, “Financial aid awarded $12.3 million with a “race and ethnicity” component for the 2022-2023 year,” making up “2.3% of all financial aid for the school’s main Columbia campus and 6.7% for the St. Louis campus.” That total was down from the $16.1 million previously awarded in race-based scholarships, which amounted to about 5.4% of the institution’s financial aid budget.
Now, the University says it will no longer factor race or ethnicity in scholarships at all.
Related: Court's Title IX Case Ruling Proves a Deeper Problem, and Most Are Missing It
However, many donors who fund these scholarships have been outraged by this recent change and have been very open and vocal in disagreeing.
Citing Christian Basi, Mizzou’s director of public affairs, Inside Higher Education reports there are “holdouts—53 of them—who Basi said the university has either been unable to reach or who have ‘disagreements’ over the change.” (The school has already amended many of the scholarships even without donor approval thanks to rules allowing the school certain discretions on financial awards.)
One donor, who said she didn’t want her support given to white students, stated, “It’s hard to find ways to help people. This was an exciting way to do that and to honor my father, who faced a lot of discrimination as a Black doctor in Missouri and could tell you how hard it is to go it alone. There’s a part of me that really feels like this is an insult to his legacy, to all the years he gave there.”
Apparently, the only way to help people nowadays is to exclude specific racial or ethnic groups for certain benefits.
Follow MRCTV on X!
A high school in New Mexico spent nearly $10k on “chest binders” as the left targets children with another perverted attack.
— MRCTV (@mrctv) June 17, 2024
https://t.co/PnVZ9ZNTXz