Education Dept. Clears Minority Programs of Discrimination at Colleges in 3 States

By Peter Schmidt

Washington

The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights has scrapped long-running investigations of programs for minority students at colleges in Missouri, New York, and North Carolina, based mainly on its determinations that the programs either have ended race-based participation criteria or consider race narrowly enough to comply with federal antidiscrimination laws.

In letters released to The Chronicle last week, the civil-rights office said it was closing