• A retired U-M professor has spearheaded a massive effort to file formal complaints against programs for women and students of color
• The professor says the programs violate federal civil rights laws
• Some hail his efforts, calling him ‘relentless.’ Others say he is working to undo progress for people historically marginalized in higher education

Five years ago, the president of a small Minnesota university got a standing ovation after announcing the first George Floyd Memorial Scholarship and challenging other academic leaders to do the same.

Soon after, many colleges followed the lead of North Central University in Minneapolis and created a scholarship for Black students honoring Floyd, a Black man murdered by a white police officer.

One person who wasn’t applauding was Mark Perry, then a University of Michigan–Flint professor. He filed nearly a dozen complaints against the Floyd scholarships with the US Department of Education that eventually led several colleges to change their eligibility.

So it goes with Perry, who has become one of the nation’s busiest litigants in the culture wars over diversity, equity and inclusion. Over nine years, he estimates he’s filed nearly 1,000 formal complaints alleging that college scholarships, programs and other opportunities based on gender or race violate federal civil-rights laws.

A hero to some and reviled by others, Perry said he’s notched a long list of successes: canceling a Minnesota high school field trip for students of color, the decision by Northwood College in Midland to open up to men a scholarship that had been reserved for women and making a Michigan State University 100-year women’s lounge co-ed.

Perry said the issue is simple: Federal civil rights laws are clear and institutions receiving federal funding must adhere to them. He calls his complaint filings “civil rights work.”

“All I am doing is holding universities accountable to their legal obligation to enforce civil rights laws for all students, white, Blacks, males, females,” said Perry, 72, who taught economics and finance for 25 years at the University of Michigan-Flint before retiring five years ago.

Perry is “as relentless as the tides,” said Edward Blum, founder of Students for Fair Admissions, which is working to end race-based admissions in higher education.

“He has done more to end flagrant civil rights violations at colleges and universities than anyone in the country,” said Blum, whose organization prevailed before the US Supreme Court in a lawsuit against Harvard College and University of North Carolina that effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions.

Others say Perry’s work is a dangerous part of a backlash that started over the past decade when women began demanding enforcement of Title IX to protect them against sexual misconduct.

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Shiwali Patel, senior director of safe and inclusive schools at the National Women’s Law Center, said Perry’s numerous complaints, and schools changing their policies, is “troubling.”

“Title IX does allow for schools to have gender-conscious programming,” said Patel. “Schools have been able to create policies aimed at increasing the participation of women and girls in fields where they are underrepresented because of historical barriers, including sex-based stereotypes and other discrimination, that have limited participation in programs and lead to current-day inequities.”

‘No. 1 customer’

By his estimation, Perry said he’s filed 990 civil rights complaints in the past nine years against 2,500 programs and nearly 900 colleges and universities. Most are focused on Title IX, a federal law banning sex discrimination in educational settings. The rest of his complaints are alleged violations of Title VI, which bans discrimination based on race, color and national origin. 

Speaking at a conference in Washington, DC, this week, Perry said that Ken Marcus, former Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Education, had referred to him as  “his No. 1 customer.”

Perry said he has more wins than losses, which he contends shows that college administrators are routinely violating the law.

“Many college administrators are either, one, unacceptably unaware of their legal obligation, as recipients of federal funds, to actively enforce Title VI and Title IX or two, knowledgeable, but inexcusably unconcerned about violating federal civil rights laws,” Perry said. “That unacceptable and inexcusable behavior in higher education has been the motivation for my efforts as a higher education watchdog.” 

Civil-rights pioneer or ‘dingbat’?

Since his retirement, Perry has moved back to his home town of St. Paul, Minn. He’s married, enjoys travelling, swimming, biking, playing blues, jazz and gospel music on the piano and watching live music.

He added activism to that list starting in 2016, after the one-time finance and business economics professor filed his first complaint.

His target: MSU for its women-only study lounge in the student union. He called it “blatant discrimination” and “gender apartheid.”

“I couldn’t find any other university in the country that was doing that,” Perry said. “Of course there was no men’s lounge. So if you have a men’s lounge and a women’s lounge, that’s fine. That’s compliant with Title IX.”

Universities that accept federal funding have to follow federal laws, including Title IX and Title IV. After MSU didn’t respond to Perry’s internal complaint, he filed a state complaint, and shared it with reporters he knew. Then, he said, it was picked up by national media. 

MSU’s lounge was remodeled and became co-ed. Perry has since filed more than a dozen complaints against MSU, among the dozens he files each year.

“I thought maybe this is something I could do,” Perry said. “It’s not complicated. It doesn’t require a law degree. No one else is doing it so why shouldn’t I do it? Or should at least contribute to the effort to try and hold universities accountable.”

Cornell Law School professor William Jacobson said Perry’s work since that time has made him “a pioneer in the use of (federal) complaints to fight discrimination in higher education.” 

During his time at U-M Flint, he was known mostly as a “free market, libertarian economist” who may have complained about women-only organizations such as the Women’s Commission, said Peggy Kahn, a retired U-M Flint political science professor.

“His civil rights position aligns with his economic views. He approaches the economy and society as a collection of individuals with responsibility for themselves in a free market system that shouldn’t be interfered with by government or institutions,” she said.

“So he didn’t think that different groups — gender in particular seemed to be his interest, but also race — had different life experiences that government or large institutions should recognize, even if that meant helping members of these groups obtain an education.”

Other colleagues don’t mince words.

Silke-Maria Weineck, a U-M professor on the Ann Arbor campus, calls Perry “a dingbat.”

“The man is obsessed,” said Weineck. “It’s his malicious hobby, persecuting people who are not white men. It’s completely horrendous.”

Perry’s “grievances have no basis,” added U-M professor Rebekah Modrak, who teaches at the university’s Stamps School of Art & Design.

“White men make up only 30% of the population and yet they dominate every major position: 55% of elected offices at the state and federal levels; 85% of Fortune 500 CEO positions, and 34% of higher education professorships,” Modrak said. “For an economist, he’s not paying attention to the data.” 

MSU declined comment about Perry and his complaints, pointing to its  antidiscrimination policy and saying it is “committed to creating and maintaining a safe and inclusive campus community for all.” 

University of Michigan complaints

Perry also has set his targets on his former employer, U-M.

In 2017, after his first complaint the year before at MSU, he filed another complaint with the state against U-M Flint for what he called “three female-only faculty awards and two minority-only faculty awards.” He said U-M’s Title IX office in Ann Arbor “moved quickly to force UM–Flint to remove the illegal sex and race restrictions” and he withdrew his complaint. 

Also that year, Perry filed a complaint with U-M’s Title IX office over a female-only summer STEM program promoted by U-M Flint called Girls in Engineering, Math and Science (GEMS). He says that U-M changed the eligibility restrictions and the program evolved from girl-only to co-ed. 

In 2018, Perry became aware of the complaint-filing process at the federal Office for Civil Rights, and he filed his first Title IX complaint against the U-M for 28 female-only programs and 25 female-only scholarships. Federal officials opened an investigation in 2019, but it has not been resolved, Perry said.

He also filed a complaint against the LEAD Scholars program but it changed its eligibility criteria after an investigation began, Perry said. He believed the program was in compliance before U-M ended the scholarship, offered to Black, Latino and Native American students, and he is not sure why it was ended.

U-M officials did not respond to requests for comment on the complaints that Perry  has filed.

After filing complaints against U-M, Perry said he realized that “violations of Title IX were widespread throughout higher education, and I started filing complaints against colleges and universities nationwide.” 

Perry began filing more Title VI complaints after he challenged George Floyd scholarships at universities in Washington, California, Minnesota and other states.

Besides MSU and UM, Perry has also filed complaints against several other Michigan universities including Wayne State, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, Michigan Technological, Lawrence Technological and Northwood universities, along with University of Detroit-Mercy.

Although Perry began filing complaints on his own, he says he now gets tips from people.

“People are fearful of filing the complaints themselves because they are fearful there will be repercussions or blowback or they will get canceled so they don’t want their name associated with a complaint,” said Perry. “That’s why I have probably filed more than 100 complaints on behalf of somebody else under my name. Because they don’t want to take the risk … I have done it so much there is no way for me to get any backlash.”  

Other organizations and individuals are now doing the same, Perry noted. He files complaints as a senior fellow for Do No Harm, an organization working to keep identity politics out of health care training and practice. 

Meanwhile, the federal government earlier this month opened investigations into scholarships offered for undocumented students at U-M and WSU as a result of complaints filed by the Legal Insurrection Foundation’s Equal Protection Project,a conservative organization. 

The federal government under the Trump administration is becoming more proactive in opening investigations into potential violations, instead of just responding to complaints.

He calls the filing of federal complaints against university programs a “new era for enforcement for federal civil rights laws in higher education” that is “really promising.” 

Perry speaks about his advocacy when invited or discusses it on radio shows or podcasts. This week, while he was in Washington, D.C., he spoke before a group of law students, emphasizing  that “academic fraud” and “illegal discrimination” are widespread and problematic.

Said Perry: “One person with dedication, determination, and commitment can make a difference.”

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