The University of Minnesota has severed its partnership with The PhD Project after signing a resolution agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which flagged the relationship as impermissibly race-based. Under the settlement, the university must tighten oversight of outside memberships, even as federal scrutiny of campus diversity programs ramps up. University leaders say they will follow the agreement’s terms while still backing equity-focused recruiting and support efforts.
According to the Star Tribune, the university signed the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) resolution in October. The agreement requires the U to submit a list of outside memberships that limit participation by race and to show those partnerships have been terminated. A September OCR letter described The PhD Project as “blatantly discriminatory” and concluded the university had “endorsed, promoted and benefitted from” the program, the paper reported. The Star Tribune also obtained internal emails asking faculty in the Carlson School of Management and the College of Liberal Arts to identify any partnerships that restrict participation, with responses collected in a shared spreadsheet.
Federal Crackdown and National Fallout
The Education Department has opened cases against dozens of institutions over their ties to The PhD Project as part of a broader push against diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and many schools have quickly moved to distance themselves, The Associated Press reported. AP coverage traces the wave of federal inquiries back to conservative social-media attention earlier this year and notes that the department asked roughly 45 universities to explain how they work with the nonprofit.
What The PhD Project Says
The PhD Project describes itself as a longstanding pipeline effort aimed at increasing representation among business doctoral students. On its site, the group says it has helped more than 1,500 of its members earn doctoral degrees and currently supports about 240 students enrolled in PhD programs. Its mission, the organization says, is to broaden the business faculty talent pool through conferences, mentoring and recruitment assistance. Those details appear on The PhD Project.
Legal Stakes for the U
OCR’s intervention is grounded in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars race-based exclusion at institutions that receive federal funding. The Education Department has warned that policies it considers impermissibly race-based can jeopardize that funding. Its letters and the resulting resolution place the University of Minnesota under ongoing compliance review and follow a pattern in which other colleges have cut ties or frozen support for similar initiatives, The Associated Press reported.
University Response and What Comes Next
A university spokesman told the Star Tribune that university attorneys informed the Board of Regents about the resolution, but the matter was not taken up in a public meeting. In a statement reported by the paper, the U said it “remains engaged” with OCR to address the agency’s concerns while continuing to “support equity and diversity” on campus, wording that campus stakeholders say they will be watching as the federal review unfolds.
For now, the university says it is complying with OCR’s conditions while leaders sort through which external relationships can stay and which must go. Students, faculty and alumni are waiting to see the agency’s next moves and how this enforcement campaign will ripple through recruitment pipelines at the U and at other universities around the country.
