Two public Oklahoma colleges are facing a federal civil rights complaint over a nursing scholarship restricted to Native American applicants, raising sharp questions about race-based aid, Title VI compliance, and how public institutions balance outreach with the law.
Principles matter. If something is wrong on principle, it is always wrong, no matter how you shuffle things around; racial considerations in college scholarships, for example, are not permitted under Title VI because they are wrong in principle. It does not and should not matter in what direction the discrimination points; it’s wrong.
Two Oklahoma nursing schools, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College and Northeastern State University, are offering nursing scholarships that are limited to Native American applicants. That is discrimination based on race, and that is wrong on principle. These programs are now the subject of a formal complaint alleging unlawful discrimination under federal law.
Two Oklahoma universities are facing a civil rights complaint from the medical advocacy group Do No Harm over their efforts to increase the number of Native American nurses.
This complaint alleges that Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College and Northeastern State University “are unlawfully discriminating against white students and other races they disfavor” by administering a race-based scholarship.
The Northeast Oklahoma Recruitment and Advancement of American Indians into Nursing scholarship is available only to American Indian students, according to the program’s webpage. The program also states that it aims to increase the number of Native American nurses and prepare them to serve in Indian health facilities following graduation.
Pursuant to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Do No Harm files this complaint against Northeastern State University (NSU) and Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO)—two public institutions of higher learning in Oklahoma that administer the Northeast Oklahoma Recruitment and Advancement of American Indians into Nursing (NEORAAIN) program scholarship.1 Through the NEORAAIN scholarship program, these institutions are unlawfully discriminating against white students and other races they disfavor. As the schools candidly admit, this nursing scholarship is available only to “American Indian students.” Other races need not apply.
That blatant discrimination is illegal. Racial discrimination is “invidious in all contexts.” SFFA v. Harvard, 600 U.S. 181, 214 (2023) (cleaned up). As public schools, NSU and NEO both accept federal funds. They are, therefore, subject to Title VI, which prohibits them from “us[ing] race as a factor” in their activities, including in awarding scholarship funds to students. Id. at 204 (cleaned up).
The complaint frames the situation as straightforward: public institutions accepting federal dollars cannot condition scholarships on racial categories. The program clearly says it is for American Indian students only, and that sort of explicit racial restriction is what the complaint challenges. Given recent Supreme Court language on race in admissions and institutional practices, the legal footing for the complaint is not frivolous.
Some defenders argue the scholarship is aimed at improving healthcare access for Native communities and that tribal sovereignty or targeted workforce needs justify special programs. There is a practical case to be made for encouraging students from underrepresented communities to enter nursing and return to serve their own populations. But when public universities offer race-exclusive scholarships, they enter the zone that Title VI covers and invite legal scrutiny.
One might say that the Native nations, if they prefer Native nurses in their clinics and facilities, may themselves want to underwrite nursing degrees for their people. Title VI states that discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin or religion is barred; it’s not clear if the various tribal organizations may run into any Title VI issues if they limited such scholarships to registered members of the tribes. That would seem to be a slightly higher bar for a challenge, at any rate. Even then, though, for such tribal membership, one generally has to have a certain percentage of Native ancestry, so that may even be a bit of a stretch, if the tribe in question accepts even a nickel of federal funding.
This program, though, limits the scholarship to Native Americans, and that would seem to land squarely at the feet of Title VI. As well it should. Which makes this response from one of the schools all the more puzzling:
However, Jonah Fabian, a spokesperson for NEO A&M, told The Fix that the college “does not discriminate on the basis of any characteristic protected by law.”
“Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College complies with all applicable federal and state laws,” Fabian said.
Native American denotes a racial classification. Discriminating for or against anyone by any racial classification falls afoul of Title VI. That reality does not bend simply because the stated goal is to increase representation in particular professions. Public colleges cannot pick winners and losers by race when federal funds are involved.
The complaint is now in the system and will test how these institutions explain a program that explicitly limits applicants by race. The outcome will matter not just for these two Oklahoma schools, but for any public entity that tries to pursue race‑based outreach within programs paid for or supported by federal dollars. Expect a careful legal review and, if the complaint proceeds, court or administrative action that will probe the limits of permissible targeted support.
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