Notre Dame has been included on a list of 45 universities that are under investigation for allegedly engaging in race-based discrimination in their graduate programs by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR).
In a press release, the Department of Education cited “allegations that these institutions have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (1964) by partnering with ‘The Ph.D. Project’” as the basis of the investigation for 45 of the colleges, including Notre Dame.
Additionally, six universities will be investigated for “awarding impermissible race-based scholarships” and one for “administering a program that segregates students on the basis of race.”
“These OCR investigations are being conducted pursuant to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (1964), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in education programs and activities receiving federal funding. Institutions’ violation of Title VI can result in loss of federal funds,” the press release said.
These investigations follow a letter sent by the department’s Office for Civil Rights on Feb. 14, which instructed institutions receiving federal funding that they must cease any racial discrimination within 14 days of the letter’s release.
“The Department will no longer tolerate the overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this Nation’s educational institutions. The law is clear: treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice, or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent,” wrote Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education, in the letter.
The press release states that The PhD Project “purports to provide doctoral students with insights into obtaining a Ph.D. and networking opportunities, but limits eligibility based on the race of participants.”
The PhD Project’s website asserts they “leverage our expansive network of partners, professionals, and universities so they can continue to help individuals earn their PhDs to teach and inspire the next generation of business leaders.”
A January version of The PhD Project’s website says the organization “has helped change the future workforce by providing historically underrepresented students a model of achievement and businesses a powerful way to enrich the talent pipeline. We support the creation of business PhDs from historically underrepresented groups – transforming business education and business.”
Mentions of historically underrepresented groups and diversity have since been removed from the organization’s homepage.
The January version of The PhD Project’s website also included a webpage with a dropdown list of university partners which has since been removed. On the previous version, when a user selected “University of Notre Dame” on the dropdown menu, they were directed to the Mendoza College of Business “Graduate Programs” page.
Notre Dame does not appear to offer information about its partnership with The PhD Project on their website. However, the 2023 University Strategic Framework does list a bulletin to “increase diversity in our graduate student and postdoctoral scholar populations” as a strategy for deepening and enriching the post-graduate experience at Notre Dame.
Notre Dame’s website does list other graduate programs designed to promote diversity.
The Notre Dame Graduate School’s Notre Dame Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (ND-PREP), which is a federally-funded fellowship offering research programs in biomedical science and related fields, requires applicants to come from a historically underrepresented group in health-related fields. "We especially encourage applications from individuals who belong to racial and/or ethnic groups, including Blacks or African Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and/or other Pacific Islanders," the page states.
A series of admissions partnerships with the Mendoza MBA program aimed at increasing diversity can also be found on its website.
