April 16, 2004

Federal Pressure Prompts Washington U. in St. Louis to Open Minority Scholarship Program to All Races

By PETER SCHMIDT

The Education Department's lawyers appear to be taking a dim view of minority scholarship programs.

The department's Office for Civil Rights has not formally commented on how it is dealing with such programs. But a meeting with the office's lawyers was enough to convince officials at Washington University in St. Louis that their institution could no longer award certain scholarships exclusively to black students.

The federal office had been investigating the university's John B.