The University of South Florida is facing scrutiny for allegedly participating in the McKnight Doctoral Fellowship, which addresses the "underrepresentation of African American and Hispanic faculty at colleges and universities in the state of Florida."
While eight other Florida institutions are listed as participants in the fellowship as well, USF is the only one in the state listed in current investigations.
Five other colleges nationwide are also being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights for awarding "impermissible race-based scholarships."
Another institution is being investigated for allegedly administering a program that segregates students on the basis of race.
Separately, 45 universities are under scrutiny for their partnership with The PhD Project, a nonprofit that helps students from underrepresented groups earn doctoral degrees in business.
The new investigations come after the Department of Education's February instruction to institutions that receive federal funds that they "must cease using race preferences and stereotypes as a factor in their admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, sanctions, discipline, and beyond."
The National Education Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as the American Federation of Teachers, filed lawsuits following the memo.
The March 13 letter to USF states that the OCR received a complaint in March 2023 "alleging that the University of South Florida discriminates against students on the basis of race ... by promoting the McKnight Doctoral Fellowship Program on its website and by participating and/or partnering with the program."
The OCR pointed out that opening the investigation is not in itself evidence that a violation of federal civil rights laws and regulations has occurred.
It directs the university to provide a list of different documents and information related to the fellowship program, including a list of university employees that participated in selecting fellows.
University spokesperson Ryan Hughes said in an email statement that USF is reviewing the letter and "will fully cooperate with the review, and ... continue to work with the state and federal governments to comply with all guidance, policies and laws."
Hughes described the fellowship as a "longstanding program that is offered at numerous colleges and universities in Florida and is permitted under state law."
The McKnight Fellowship is one of the programs funded by the Florida Education Fund, which is enshrined in state law. According to the statute, the FEF is supposed to "enhance equality" by providing access to higher education programs to minority and economically deprived individuals. The FEF was also created to "increase the representation of minorities in faculty and administrative positions in higher education."
This is the second OCR letter that USF received last week.
Just days before, on March 10, USF was among 60 other schools that received a letter accusing them of not protecting Jewish students against antisemitic activity.
According to a report from NPR, a handful of schools are involved in both sets of investigations, including Cornell, George Mason, Rutgers, Yale, University of Wisconsin, Madison, and University of Washington-Seattle — all of which are on The PhD Project list.
USF and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, appear to be the only schools under investigation for alleged impermissible race-based scholarships and race-based segregation that are also being investigated for antisemitic discrimination.
USF's webpage for the McKnight Fellowship has been taken down and now leads to an error page.
However, using the WayBack Machine — a digital archive that lets users visit past versions of websites — it shows that USF once provided an overview of the award and a link to the application.
There were seven current McKnight fellows at USF, as of Jan. 2025, according to the archive.
Each award provides annual tuition up to $5,000 for each of three academic years, plus an annual stipend of $12,000. Any additional support such as tuition that exceeds the award or additional years of study is provided by the participating institution, according to the fellowship overview.
