The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed a civil rights complaint against the University of Wisconsin Jan. 12 on behalf of the Young America’s Foundation, a student organization on campus that seeks to educate students and promote traditional conservative values, according to YAF.
According to the complaint, UW is offering 22 “race-based scholarships” to students in the 2025-26 academic year. WILL requested that the U.S. Department of Education open a formal investigation and require the university to take action to ensure all scholarship opportunities offered by UW-Madison are race-neutral, according to WILL.
This is the second complaint by WILL against the UW administration since the firm filed a similar complaint in January 2025, saying UW offered at least 60 race-based scholarships in the 2024-25 school year. In March 2025, the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation into UW for allegedly participating in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs, according to the Department of Education.
UW has not been notified by the Office of Civil Rights of this complaint or the previous WILL complaint in January 2025 but will cooperate with any review should the OCR contact the university, UW spokesperson John Lucas said in an email.
The civil rights complaint by WILL came after the Supreme Court ruled in 2023, through Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard, that a race-based admissions policy violates the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Before this ruling, nine states —including California, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington — had already banned “race-conscious admissions programs“ in their institutions of higher education.
The desired result of the complaint is that the Office of Civil Rights will investigate UW and end these race-based programs. If the administration does not comply, the University could potentially lose federal funding, WILL associate counsel Erin Gamble, who helped file the complaint, said.
“The case is crystal clear that schools who receive federal funding can no longer discriminate on the basis of race,” Gamble said.
All 22 UW scholarships recorded in the complaint require award recipients to be “of a certain race or national origin” to receive financial benefit, according to WILL.
The complaint specifically notes the Alliant Energy/Erroll V. David Achievement Award, alleging it requires a recipient to be from a certain racial category or from a group underrepresented in the fields of engineering or business. The suit also notes the Department of Bacteriology Underrepresented Minority Undergraduate Student Scholarship, which aims to provide scholarship funding to students underrepresented in the Microbiology major at UW.
In 2025, Chancellor Mnookin and officials from UW met with a Joint Audit Committee related to two recent audits into the diversity, equity and inclusion practices at the university. Mnookin denied the presence of race-based scholarships following the ruling in SFFA, according to the Wisconsin Examiner.
Mnookin explained in an interview with the Wisconsin Examiner that no one is receiving scholarships from UW on the basis of race. She also claimed in the interview that UW is not accepting new scholarships that call out identity characteristics in that way.
“It honestly seems like the University of Wisconsin-Madison knows they’re supposed to end these scholarship programs, considering they’re saying out loud that they have,” Gamble said. “The onus really is on the University of Wisconsin-Madison to simply follow the law.”
Campus spokesperson John Lucas said in a statement that the complaint by WILL does not guarantee direct legal action against the university.
The complaint was a letter to the Department of Education pursuing a Title VI investigation, according to Lucas’s statement. Further, the Office for Civil Rights will choose how they want to move forward and if they will open an investigation.
UW has reviewed admissions practices to ensure legal compliance, according to Lucas’s statement.
After SFFA, the university has enacted a scholarship distribution process called “pool and match,” according to the Office of Student Financial Aid. This method directs donor funds to student recipients. Pool and match distribution ensures legality by basing financial awards on neutral criteria like need, merit or geographic barriers in a way that does not advantage or disadvantage anyone because of an identity characteristic, according to the Office of Student Financial Aid.
Chairwoman of Wisconsin Youth Americans for Freedom Courtney Graves said in an emailed statement that the scholarships demonstrated racial discrimination.
“Scholarships should be given out based on merit, not race. Racial discrimination should have no place in the 21st century,” Graves said in the statement.
Conversely, chair of the Associated Students of Madison Landis Varughese expressed support for racial diversity and support for marginalized community groups at UW.
“Students of color have historically been denied the opportunity to pursue an education — reduced to feeble numbers on paper,” Varughese said in an email statement. “However, UW-Madison provides a world-class education that recognizes the unique experiences and identities that these students have. Students of color remain one of this campus’ biggest strengths and I wish nothing but for that to continue henceforth.”
