Cal Poly Humboldt Ends Membership With PhD Project After Federal OCR Investigation

Cal Poly Humboldt ended its membership in the PhD Project on March 4, 2026, removing one formal recruiting channel for business faculty after the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights placed the campus among 45 universities under investigation. The CSU system confirmed the termination and CSU spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith characterized the PhD Project as a vehicle to “advertise academic employment opportunities.”

The PhD Project is a nonprofit that was created to expand representation of Black, Latino and Native American faculty in business schools and, according to the organization, “has helped more than 1,500 members earn their doctoral degree.” The group told campuses in early 2025 that “we opened The PhD Project application to anyone who shares our vision,” and said it “remains focused on our mission to expand the pool of workplace talent by developing business school faculty who inspire, mentor, and support tomorrow’s leaders.”

Federal enforcement intensified after OCR opened investigations into university partnerships with the PhD Project, alleging the nonprofit “unlawfully limits eligibility based on the race of participants.” The Department of Education announced it had obtained 31 resolution agreements in which colleges and universities agreed to cease partnering with the PhD Project; U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon called the agreements evidence that “institutions of higher education are agreeing to cut ties with discriminatory organizations, recommitting themselves to abiding by federal law, and restoring equality of opportunity on campuses across the nation.”

California State University system records show the system signed an agreement in October 2025 resolving OCR cases involving Cal State San Bernardino and Cal Poly Humboldt. Those records said campuses would review relationships and commitments to groups that “restrict participation based on race” and either end such partnerships or explain why they would not. The CSU review of its 22 campuses identified one other organization of potential concern, The Links; Cal Poly Pomona subsequently ended its relationship with The Links, a group whose website says its members are “committed to enriching, sustaining and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry.”

Faculty advocates objected to the campus-level decisions. The California Faculty Association said “Under both state and federal law, CSU is not permitted to engage in programs and activities that provide preference based on race,” and Faye Wachs of CFA Pomona said she is “deeply disappointed the university is cutting ties with the Links because of fear of the Trump administration,” noting the Links’ mentorship role and Pomona’s prior Black Thriving Initiative.

Universities have defended membership as a recruitment tool. University spokesperson David Dodds said campuses joined to gain “access to the PhD Project’s member directory and applicant database, to be able to recruit a larger pool of qualified applicants for faculty positions.” Some campuses promptly cut ties after the investigations to avoid entanglement with federal enforcement; one institutional example showed that of 170 PhD students admitted to a business school over 14 years, two had been recruited through the PhD Project.

The broader legal context includes a Department regulatory guidance letter that sought to restrict race-based scholarships and programs after the 2023 Supreme Court ruling on race in admissions; the Department later dropped an appeal in litigation challenging that guidance. Settlement documents in many cases did not include monetary penalties, but they required institutions to search for and address similar relationships that restrict participation by race. Cal Poly Humboldt’s decision removes one established pathway for recruiting faculty of color and leaves campus leaders confronting how to meet stated diversity goals while complying with the Department’s resolution commitments.