The News: The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) filed a new Title VI complaint following our continued investigation into race-based practices at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This second complaint was filed on behalf of our client Young America’s Foundation (YAF), representing thousands of students across the country, including conservative students on the UW-Madison campus.
Our Findings: During the 2024-25 school year, WILL discovered that UW-Madison offered at least 60 race-based scholarships to students, excluding many white and Asian students from even applying for these scholarships. To hold these actions accountable, WILL filed a federal civil rights complaint against UW-Madison in January 2025. In March 2025, the Trump Administration opened an investigation on UW-Madison’s race-based practices.
The following month, UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, stated during a legislative hearing, “Nobody is getting a scholarship from UW Madison on the basis of the racial preference.” This is the same chancellor who authored a memo calling to rebrand DEI initiatives, later criticized by WILL.
Over the summer, WILL submitted public records requests to UW-Madison for a list and description of race-based scholarships for the 2025-26 academic year. These new records reveal that UW-Madison still offers at least 22 race-based scholarships for the current 2025-26 academic year, despite Chancellor Mnookin’s public testimony that “nobody is getting a scholarship from UW Madison on the basis of racial preference.” Now, WILL is once again asking for a new and expanded federal investigation into UW-Madison’s discriminatory and illegal practices.
The Quotes: WILL Vice President and Deputy Counsel, Dan Lennington, said, “UW-Madison is flouting federal law, and playing chicken with the Trump Administration. This won’t end well: a Title VI violation can result in the loss of federal funding, as other universities have discovered. We are calling for a new and expanded investigation into all the discriminatory practices at UW-Madison.”
What Comes Next: We are asking that the Department of Education to once again open a formal investigation into the race-based scholarships identified in our complaint and require UW-Madison to take appropriate remedial action to ensure all scholarships offered, awarded, promoted, and/or otherwise facilitated by the university are race-neutral. If an investigation is opened and violations confirmed, the university could face corrective action or loss of federal funds.
Read More:
Title VI Complaint, January 2026
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