[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
Editor’s note: A culture of rampant lawlessness has been steadily growing in American academia. Our nation’s universities have shamelessly put their pursuit of woke leftist ideology ahead of their loyalty and obedience to the laws of the United States of America and the principles of freedom and equality of opportunity that inform them. The Freedom Center is exposing the worst perpetrators of this illegal conduct as the Top Ten Academic Felons, and we will be highlighting one school a day as we count down from #10 to #1. The University of Louisville is #6 on our list.
#6: The University of Louisville
Despite its location within the red state of Kentucky, The University of Louisville has demonstrated its abject contempt for the rule of law when it conflicts with the woke principles of the radical left.
In July, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened an investigation into the University of Louisville (along with four other universities) charging that they are in violation of the ‘national origins’ clause of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
That clause plainly states that: “No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Yet if the Trump Administration’s charges are true, Louisville is violating this law by sponsoring financial scholarships for tuition that can only go to illegal immigrants or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) students. Louisville is discriminating against students who are American citizens since they are unable to apply for these scholarships that are reserved for illegals. Other financial awards at Louisville are reserved for ethnic minorities—another violation of Title VI.
“Non-citizens should not be given special preference over American citizens for scholarships at American universities,” Trump-appointed Education Secretary Linda McMahon posted on X.
This isn’t a matter of complicated legal semantics. Title VI is crystal clear and has been on the books for over six decades. But this didn’t stop Louisville from using federal tax dollars to sponsor tuition for illegal aliens—no Americans need apply.
Among the awards being investigated are the Sagar Patagundi Scholarship as well as the Dawn Wilson Scholarship and Louisville Tango Festival Scholarship.
The Sagar Patagundi award is eponymously named. Patagundi is himself a DACA recipient who immigrated to America illegally from Mumbai at age 11, initially arriving on a visitor’s visa. The language describing the scholarship makes it clear that American citizens are not eligible, stating that it will “subsidize the cost of higher education…for undergraduate DACA and undocumented students.”
In an interview with Voyage LA, Patagundi shared his impetus for sponsoring a scholarship for illegals:
In Louisville, I found my voice. I became deeply involved in immigrant rights, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+, and women’s rights movements. Driven by my own experiences, I founded F.I.R.E. (Fighting for Immigrant Rights & Equality), a nonprofit dedicated to creating safe spaces for undocumented youth pursuing higher education…
Despite my contributions, I didn’t qualify for financial aid. Desperate to continue my education, I created a GoFundMe campaign, and with the support of my community, I graduated debt-free. In response to my work, the University of Louisville established the Sagar Patagundi Alumni Scholarship to help undocumented and underprivileged students attend college tuition-free—a testament to the impact of my journey.
Since the investigation was announced, all information about these awards appears to have been stripped from the university’s website.
“Protecting equal access to education includes protecting the rights of American-born students. At the Equal Protection Project, we are gratified that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is acting on our complaints regarding scholarships that excluded American-born students,” explained William A. Jacobson, founder of the Equal Protection Project. “Discrimination against American-born students must not be tolerated.”
The University of Louisville’s lawlessness extends beyond its funding of illegal scholarships. The public academic institution has also violated the First Amendment rights of its faculty by firing a prestigious psychology professor for making off-campus remarks criticizing radical gender ideology.
Professor Allan Josephson was hired by the University of Louisville in 2003 to lead its department of psychiatric and child psychology—a program that at the time was “struggling.” Following fifteen years under Josephson’s leadership, the department “now has a national reputation,” according to a lawsuit filed by on the professor’s behalf by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
“He provided such superlative leadership that his supervisor … awarded him perfect marks in his 2014, 2015, and 2016 annual reviews,” the lawsuit describes.
This all changed after Josephson spoke out about his views on childhood gender transition—a topic that was practically unheard of when he was hired back in 2003, but that has rapidly become a huge topic of controversy in American society.
At a 2017 event held by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, Josephson condemned the new practice of transitioning children who are confused about their gender and subjecting them to experimental treatments that can cause permanent life-altering changes such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. This path of medical intervention neglects “the developmental needs of children and relies on ideas that are just not true,” stated the professor—a view that has since been upheld by recent medical analyses such as Britain’s Cass Report.
At the Heritage Foundation forum, Josephson went on to explain that “the notion that gender identity should trump chromosomes, hormones, internal reproductive organs, external genitalia, and secondary sex characteristics when classifying individuals is counter to medical science.”
“Children persistently, insistently, and consistently demand many things that are not good for them,” he continued. “A parent’s role is to resist these demands when parental wisdom trumps children’s limited life experience.”
Astoundingly, Josephson’s remarks at this off-campus forum—which according to every principle of academic freedom as well as the professor’s personal constitutional right to free speech are legally protected—led to his firing by the University of Louisville in February of 2019.
“Universities are supposed to be a marketplace of ideas, but the University of Louisville is turning itself into an assembly line of one thought,” declared Travis Barham, an attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom which took up the professor’s case.
After filing a lawsuit jointly with the Alliance Defending Freedom, the University of Louisville ultimately settled the suit last April to the tune of almost $1.6 million in damages and lawyer’s fees.
“Hopefully, other public universities will learn from this that if they violate the First Amendment, they can be held accountable, and it can be very expensive,” Barham, the ADF lawyer, commented.
The University of Louisville’s endorsement of scholarships reserved for illegal immigrants and its indefensible violation of the First Amendment rights of a prestigious professor earn it a place on the list of Academic Felons.
Previous articles in series:
#10: Academic Felon: Golden West College
#9: Academic Felon: University of Arizona
#8: Academic Felon: San Jose State University
#7: Cornell University
