The Education Department demanded a list of outside organizations to cut off after a civil rights investigation. Towson University submitted none.
By Sarah Sternhagen, Editor-in-Chief
Towson University flagged none of its partner organizations to be reviewed by the U.S. Department of Education for possibly restricting participation based on race. The reporting requirement followed a civil rights investigation that 44 other universities were also involved in.
Over a year ago, the Trump administration claimed 45 colleges, including Towson, violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1962 by partnering with The PhD Project, a nonprofit that helps underrepresented minorities earn doctorates in business fields. The Education Department opened up investigations into each university.
Towson was an affiliate member of The PhD Project, posting open positions on one of its job boards.
Last October, the department’s investigation into Towson came to an end. In the agreement, which was announced in February, Towson admitted no wrongdoing, and agreed to end its partnership with The PhD Project. Another 30 of the investigated universities also agreed to end partnerships with The PhD Project.
University President Mark Ginsberg said Towson was already planning to end the partnership for a variety of reasons, one of them being that the university does not offer doctorate programs in business.
Towson told the Education Department it wasn’t partnered with any organizations that may violate civil rights in an email sent on Dec. 3, 2025, according to documents The Towerlight obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
If Towson had submitted possibly violating organizations, it would have to say if the partnership would continue or not, and why. The Education Department would then approve any partnership cancellations, and Towson would have to provide proof that it cut all ties with those organizations.
Isaac Kamola, the director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, said that a year-long wait for the investigation’s verdict is part of the Trump administration’s push against higher education as a whole.
“The clear statement of, we have our eyes on you, and we are going to leave you existentially scared about the kinds of things that we could do to you at any moment based on this arbitrary, nonsensical interpretation of the law,” Kamola said.
The Education Department rationalized its civil rights investigations into universities by applying a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The Supreme Court ruled that colleges couldn’t consider race during admissions, but the Education Department has applied the anti-race consideration to all aspects of college programs.
Legal scholars say this broad interpretation misrepresents the decision and oversteps its intended bounds.
Kamola said not submitting a list of partner organizations is a strategy other colleges should take because the Education Department’s interpretation of a civil rights violation is “just laughably ridiculous.”
However, the University of Kentucky, which was one of the other colleges being investigated, did submit a list of possible partnerships to cut. The list contained over 1,200 organizations, including ones like the American Bar Association, Johns Hopkins University, and Creative Commons.
