In 1983, the University of California, San Diego, created the Black Alumni Scholarship Fund (BASF). Operated and funded by the university, the scholarship subsidized the tuition of black students—who at that time made up just 2 percent of UCSD—and provided them with mentorship and study abroad opportunities.
Then Proposition 209 passed.
California’s ban on affirmative action, which went into effect in 1997, meant that state universities could no longer offer scholarships like UCSD’s. But rather than shut down the program, the university found a loophole to keep it up and running.
With help from private donors, UCSD transferred the scholarship to an off-campus nonprofit, the San Diego Foundation, that was not subject to Prop. 209. The move allowed the scholarship to continue operating under the auspices of a private institution, even though the program is only available to UCSD students and uses racial data provided by the university.
Now in its 42nd year, BASF has doled out more than $800,000 on behalf of UCSD. It is part of a family of race-based programs, including those in Texas and Michigan, that are financed by private nonprofits but support students at public schools, an arrangement critics say is used to outsource discrimination to the private sector.
A new lawsuit threatens to chip away at the legal foundations of that arrangement. In a complaint filed against UCSD and the San Diego Foundation on Wednesday, a conservative law firm is arguing that both entities conspired to deprive students of their civil rights, thereby violating a 19th-century law meant to rein in racial vigilantism.
The Ku Klux Klan Act bans conspiracies of both public and private actors that deprive “any person … of the equal protection of the laws.” It was passed in 1871 to counter the Klan’s lawless intimidation of black voters. But it is being used today to challenge the Black Alumni Scholarship Fund, which Wednesday’s lawsuit describes as a “conspiracy to interfere with civil rights.”
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Author: Marty Kaufmann
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