Race Discrimination Complaint Filed Against SUNY Albany for Black Only Internships

By: Donny Simcha Guttman

In recent months, the Equal Protection Project sent a “cease and desist” letter to SUNY Albany/UAlbany for promoting an internship program where only black individuals are accepted. The internships have been taking place in the Albany Public Library. The Project is alleging that parts of the Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment of the Constitution have been violated. Additionally, a lawsuit was filed to the federal Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights.

In June of 2020, the Touhey Library Equity Fellowship was created from a donation from the Carl E. Touhey Foundation, which is described by UAlbany, that the Foundation’s mission is “seeks to support local organizations and entities that have at their core the mission of promoting social and economic fairness for the underserved and underrepresented in the City of Albany.” The internship would allow black students in Information Sciences in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity to receive an internship with a branch of the Albany Public Library. The internship has offered $1,500 in scholarships and up to an additional $11,500 in stipends to the interns.

The Executive Director of the APL said about the internship that “Providing a paid internship means attracting promising librarians of color, and directly works to ensure that APL’s workforce is as diverse and inclusive as the communities we serve.” The CEHC has also been supportive of the recent equity efforts, as their assistant dean, Jane Goodall, said about the program, “Diversity is one of the cornerstones of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity. The Touhey Library Equity Fellowship provides our students an excellent opportunity to intern at one of our closest partners, Albany Public Library, and highlights the importance of diversity in all fields.”

The Equal Protection Project whose mission statement is “The Equal Protection Project is devoted to the fair treatment of all persons without regard to race or ethnicity. Our guiding principle is that there is no ‘good’ form of racism. The remedy for racism never is more racism. We will INVESTIGATE wrongdoing, EDUCATE the public, and LITIGATE when necessary,” in March, took the case to litigate the “equity, diversity, inclusion and social justice” policies of SUNY Albany.

William Jacobson, founder of EqualProtect.com said to the NY Post that “SUNY Albany has an expansive bureaucracy supposedly devoted to fighting discrimination, yet no one thought to ask why the university was creating and promoting a racially-exclusionary program? This raises the likelihood that certain forms of discrimination are deemed acceptable. SUNY Albany and the SUNY system need to examine whether in purporting to fight systemic racism they have perpetuated racism but in a different form. The remedy for racism should never be more racism.”

UAlbany told the NY Post in response to the allegations from the EPP, that the school was “not involved in the administration of this fellowship program.” However, in EPP’s complaint against UAlbany, countering the response from UAlbany, the complaint says that “UAlbany created the racially-restrictive program and continues to promote it, which is a violation of law regardless of who administers it.” UAlbany’s scholarship is in line with its recent update of graduating requirements requiring students to pass at least one course on “Equity, Inclusion, Diversity, and Social Justice” in order to graduate.

According to Miriam- Webster dictionary “‘equitable’ implies a less rigorous standard than ‘just’ and usually suggests equal treatment of all concerned”.