A Microsoft Fellowship Caps the Number of White and Asian Applicants. Lawyers Say That’s Illegal.

[Valin]

The Washington Free Beacon

Aaron Sibarium

September 8, 2022

t’s not just Google. Microsoft is capping the number of white and Asian students that universities can nominate for a prestigious research fellowship that includes a generous $42,000 stipend, part of a pattern of discriminatory policies sweeping corporate America.

The Microsoft Research Ph.D. Fellowship allows participating universities to nominate up to four students annually. "At least two" of those four nominees, per Microsoft’s provisions, should "self-identify as a woman, African American, Black, Hispanic, Latinx, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQI+, active or veteran service member, and/or person with a disability."

It is illegal for companies to enter into contracts based on race under the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits federally funded universities from discriminating based on race. The Microsoft fellowship likely violates both laws, according to Gail Heriot, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and a law professor at the University of San Diego.

A Microsoft spokesman, Rhoades Clark, declined to comment, telling the Washington Free Beacon that Microsoft "has nothing to share."

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