University Of Iowa’s Request To Modify Scholarship Supporting Black Students Majoring In Physical Sciences Opposed By State Supreme Court – AfroTech

The University of Iowa has been pushing to revise a scholarship that ran counter to the wishes of a late Black chemistry professor.

Ezra Totton was a professor at the university who died in 1996. In his will, he requested that 40% of his estate support his top five “favorite charities in equal shares,” according to a court document. This included the University of Iowa, with the establishment of the Ezra L. Totton Scholarship. He asked that the funds benefit Black students majoring in physical sciences, preferably chemistry, at the university. The endowment was created “out of gratitude to the University of Iowa for educating him in its graduate chemistry program during the Jim Crow era,” noted Higher Ed Dive.

The University of Iowa sought to change the scholarship’s requirements to target first-generation students, who make up 19% of the university’s student body, compared with Black students who make up only 3%. Rita Bettis Austen, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Iowa, noted that Black students “qualify for financial aid more,” have more student loan debt in comparison to first-generation students, and make less money after graduation.

“Without question, repurposing Dr. Totton’s gift to students who were the first person in their family to attend college would have had the effect of significantly diluting its potential benefit to Black students,” Bettis Austen told Higher Ed Dive.

The University of Iowa’s shift in attitude towards the longstanding scholarship stemmed from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to end race-conscious admissions at colleges and universities, the outlet noted. This U.S. Supreme Court ruling came in 2023 in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College (SFFA), NPR reports. The University of Iowa said the ban “raised serious doubts about its ability to administer the scholarship going forward.” Higher Ed Dive reported that the ruling did not directly mention scholarships or grants. However, leaders across the state and the university interpreted it as applying to scholarships as well.

The university’s request to revise the scholarship term was denied by the Iowa District Court in 2025. The university appealed the decision, which led the ACLU, the NAACP, and local chapters of both organizations to file an amicus brief in response in January, per the outlet.

The groups said if the university does not want to honor the original intent of the scholarship it should allocate “the funds to one or more of the alternative charitable institutions named by Dr. Totton in his will” or return the funds to the family “for them to be able to further distribute it in service of Dr. Totton’s wishes,” according to Higher Ed Dive.

The outlet also reported that Iowa’s attorney general and solicitor general disagree with the groups’ stance and believe that state law allows the university “to modify a charitable fund when a restriction becomes unlawful, impracticable, or impossible to fulfill.”

“The Totton Scholarship’s race-based eligibility is unconstitutional and thus impracticable to administer, given the ongoing risk of litigation and federal enforcement action,” Iowa’s attorney general and solicitor general said to the court in March, per Higher Ed Dive.

The Iowa Supreme Court said it does “not dispute that the original restriction to Black students has become ‘impracticable’—if not illegal—in light of SFFA, but they strenuously oppose the University’s requested modification,” according to the court document.

The case will return to the district court with the higher court noting that the school will have to consider Totton’s will and honor it, as well as include “an advocate for the donor’s intent.”