A civil rights organization has filed a complaint against the University of California, Irvine (UCI), alleging that its Samueli School of Engineering is implementing unlawful racial quotas by setting goals to have the number of Black faculty, students, and staff match or exceed the Black population in California. The Equal Protection Project (EPP), led by Cornell Law School Professor William Jacobson, claims these practices violate federal civil rights law and the U.S. Constitution. The complaint comes as UCI is already under investigation by the Department of Justice over similar allegations of racial quotas in employment and admissions.
The EPP’s complaint highlights a specific section of the Samueli School’s website, which, although now offline, read, “We acknowledge the existence of anti-Black racism and prioritizes the campus commitment to create a university culture where Black people thrive. We aim to reflect California’s demographics in our SSoE community by growing our population of Black faculty, students, staff, researchers, and partners to match or exceed the state’s current Black population of 6%.” The EPP argues that such a race-based benchmark for recruitment and hiring constitutes a racial quota prohibited under federal law.
The complaint also asserts that the university’s use of racial quotas violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as the institution is a public school. The EPP is calling on the Departments of Education and Justice to investigate UCI, stating that systemic discrimination within the university must be addressed by federal authorities. In a statement, a UC Irvine spokesperson said the university “strives to create a learning and working environment where students and employees from all backgrounds are welcome to pursue their academic and professional goals” and added that the school is reviewing the complaint.