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Two Portland-area higher education institutions faced pressure this spring from the Equal Protection Project, a conservative legal group, over certain scholarships and programs they operate.
The two institutions have so far taken seemingly different approaches in response to the EPP’s complaints.
The EPP has filed dozens of complaints with the federal Office of Civil Rights against colleges and universities across the nation, taking issue with awards and programs that consider race and ethnicity. The group’s effort challenges the legality of such programs after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard found affirmative action in college admissions unconstitutional.
Both Lewis & Clark College and Oregon Health & Science University faced complaints this spring. A spokeswoman for L&C says the college learned of the April complaint—which flags one program in the law school and four scholarships—through news reports, and has not received notice from the Office of Civil Rights. (KOIN first reported on the story in April.)
The story is different at OHSU. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last week opened an investigation into the EPP’s complaint, which it originally filed in May. OHSU spokeswoman Sara Hottman confirms the university is aware of the complaint and plans to respond by the deadline.
The EPP’s complaints contain archival web links to the scholarships and programs it has flagged, and the specific language it takes issue with. L&C appears to have made some changes to the language of the flagged program at the law school, and seems to have scrubbed its website of descriptions of its four targeted scholarships.
At L&C, the EPP had flagged four scholarships, including two for students of Chinese or Asian ancestry and one for international students who held non-immigrant visas. The law school program it flagged, known as the Academic Enhancement Program, provides academic and cultural support to law students. “Space is limited and thus, priority is given to ethnic minorities,” L&C’s website previously read.
Now, an updated description of the Academic Enhancement Program has erased the clauses about prioritization, noting the program as “space limited.”
“Upon learning of the complaint, we removed obsolete pages from our website,” says L&C spokeswoman Lori Friedman. “Lewis & Clark is committed to administering its programs and scholarships in a manner that complies with all civil rights laws.”
Friedman did not immediately respond to a follow up question from WW about whether the four challenged scholarships had been disbanded. All four are still listed on a gifting page for endowed scholarships, but there is no detailed information available on what they fund.
OHSU appears to have made few changes to its flagged programs, most of which mentor students at different levels of education in various fields of medicine.
Its website currently does not display information about one flagged program, Jump Start, a program for post-baccalaureate scholars to expand awareness of career programs among students from a broad range of backgrounds. According to web archives, the summer program, housed in the ophthalmology department, had sought individuals “traditionally underrepresented in research” including minority students.
OHSU’s site also does not display information about a nursing scholarship that required students to meet at least one criteria off a list, including being part of a minority group.
Hottman, the OHSU spokeswoman, says Jump Start is still in existence, and has been temporarily removed from the website to update outdated information. A flier she shared with WW about Jump Start—which she says dates back to mid-2025, well ahead of the complaint—makes no mention of prioritizing minority students. The nursing scholarship, she says, was through a government grant that was not renewed in 2021. It has not been operational for some time, Hottman says.
Four other OHSU programs EPP flagged still explicitly consider minority students from underserved backgrounds. Those web pages have not undergone changes since EPP catalogued them.
“Oregon Health & Science University complies with all state and federal laws, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” Hottman says. “Race and/or ethnicity are not prerequisites for admission or participation in OHSU programs.”
The two Portland-area universities are not the only ones in the state to face challenges from the EPP. In 2025, it also filed a complaint against the University of Oregon over four scholarships.
