President Joe Biden’s Department of Education has been noticeably silent on a civil rights complaint filed against the University of Denver (DU), which hosted segregated “race-based caucuses” last fall.
Christi Collins, a graduate student at DU, filed an official civil rights complaint with the department in November 2020. As YAF reported, The Graduate School of Social Work hosted six race-based caucuses:
“POC MSW students caucus,”
“POC faculty/staff/Phd,”
“Biracial/multiracial MSW students,”
“Black/African/African American MSW students,”
“White faculty/staff/Phd,”
“White MSW students.”
Lori Helton Welker, an enforcement attorney in the Civil Rights division, reached out to Collins in December to schedule an initial call regarding her complaint. Welker noted that she is in charge of ensuring “educational institutions who are recipients of federal financial assistance” are following the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964––barring discrimination based on race.
After scheduling an initial interview, Welker then asked to postpone the call, and never rescheduled with Collins despite multiple attempts at reconnecting.
In February 2021, Collins again followed up with the Department, asking for a status update.
“At this time, OCR is evaluating your complaint, and I apologize for the delay and inconvenience,” Welker wrote, in an email obtained exclusively by YAF. “I will be in touch when we have completed the evaluation.”
Flash forward to April of 2021––and the Department has been silent on moving forward with the complaint, not even giving Collins the time of day for an introductory interview.
“I feel like my complaint is being blown off,” Collins told YAF. “I don’t want to let this go.”
For a presidential administration that claims to be devoted to ensuring “equality” for all Americans, why are they showing no interest in stepping in to end racial segregation at one of America’s universities? Racism in the name of “wokeism” is still discrimination. Students from all walks of life should feel welcomed on their campus–not belittled because of the color of their skin.
Let the Department of Education know they will not get away with trying to sweep this racist incident under the rug. Email them your thoughts at [email protected].
YAF’s reporting through the Campus Bias Tip Line has also led to a federal investigation at the University of Kentucky. Have a campus bias tip? Submit it to us here.
