From the Arkansas Advocate:
The University of Arkansas in Fayetteville has identified more than 100 scholarships to be modified to comply with laws related to race and diversity, and at least one donor has ended his financial support as a result.
A 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that it’s unconstitutional to use race as a selection criterion in university admissions prompted the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees to approve a resolution in January to review and modify scholarship endowment funds to comply with applicable law.
The resolution directed campuses to use “permissible modifications that honor as closely as possible donor intent,” such as having significant financial need, being a first-generation college student, hailing from a geographic area that is less well-represented or having a record of overcoming challenges.
“The goal of the changes is to ensure that donor intent can be carried out to the greatest extent possible and that University of Arkansas students with demonstrated need can continue to benefit from these generous gifts for years to come,” UA System President Jay Silveria said in a letter to trustees.
As of late November, the majority of donors had been notified, but the process remains ongoing, said John Thomas, director of media relations and core communications.
“Most donors contacted recognize the University’s obligation to make revisions given changes in the legal environment, including the Supreme Court’s Students for Fair Admissions decision,” Thomas wrote in an email. “If donors wish to discuss refined modifications, we are open to discussing that with them, but the bottom line is that scholarships must be compliant with legal requirements.”
Higher ed institutions have been grappling with how to comply with an increasing number of federal and state directives and rules aimed at dismantling initiatives related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in recent years. The institutions’ resulting actions have sometimes led to a loss of programs.
The University of Alabama, for example, suspended publication of two magazines Monday, claiming they were out of compliance with federal DEI guidance. In late October, the Equal Protection Project requested a federal civil rights investigation into the University of Central Arkansas over 10 scholarships that the group argued “discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin and/or sex in violation of Title VI and Title IX.” The EPP began in 2023 as an arm of the Legal Insurrection Foundation, a conservative-leaning advocacy group.
The complaint, filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, “helps illustrate the risks that the University of Arkansas has been proactively seeking to prevent through the revision process,” Thomas said.
Documents the Advocate obtained through a public records request show that in July 2025, the University of Arkansas’ review also considered two new laws passed by the Arkansas General Assembly during this year’s legislative session. Act 116 of 2025 prohibits preferential treatment based on “race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in matters of state employment, public education, or state procurement.” Meanwhile, Act 340 of 2025 prohibits requiring adherence to a philosophical viewpoint or requiring the submission of diversity-related statements.
With regard to sex-based scholarships, Thomas said some “distinct considerations” apply based on Title IX regulations, but generally any prohibitions would apply equally to both men and women.
“The issue here is that if there is a sex restricted scholarship in support of an academic unit, there is an exception under the Title IX regulations through which the scholarship can be awarded, but only if it is grouped with a larger set of scholarships, with the recipients chosen without regard to sex,” Thomas said. “The sex-restricted scholarship can then be matched to a qualified recipient.”
This only applies to a small number of existing, older scholarships, he said.
Revoked support
According to emails the Advocate obtained through a public records request, four scholarships were identified for modification within the University of Arkansas’ Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, including the Andrew A. Kinslow and Russell W. Kirkpatrick Diversity Award for Design Excellence.
Kinslow, an architecture school alum and the scholarship’s benefactor, said he first learned university officials were considering changing his scholarship through an informal conversation about a year ago. He received a formal email about potential modifications on Oct. 10.
That same week, Kinslow learned Ten Commandments posters were being installed on the university’s Fayetteville campus to comply with another new state law, and decided to end his financial support by cutting the U of A out of his will and discontinuing his two scholarships.
The Andrew A. Kinslow Interior Design Scholarship awarded $1,000 to a 3rd or 4th year student from Arkansas interested in commercial design. Applicant criteria is not included on that same scholarship website for Kinslow’s $1,500 diversity scholarship. However, according to a document on the architecture school’s website, the scholarship was awarded to 2nd through 5th year students with a 3.0 grade point average who demonstrate financial need and consideration was “given to students who demonstrate commitment to diversity and inclusion.”
Kinslow said he started the diversity scholarship a few years ago “to do more to help the students.” The Arkansas native, who now lives in Oklahoma, said he was surprised by notification that the scholarship needed to be changed because it refers to diversity generally instead of something specific, like a racial quota.
“It was open in that it was to encourage diversity of all kinds and that includes people from small towns, it includes people from inner cities, it includes people from not necessarily race-based, but just more that whole thing of exposure to all sorts of people,” Kinslow said.
“…I couldn’t understand why anybody would be against that, and that was when we had talked about pulling it because if it can’t be what we want it to be, why are we doing it?”
When he owned his own architecture firm, Kinslow said his 75 employees had a wide range of ethnic and religious backgrounds, which was good for the company.
“It was a very diverse group, and we felt like that was one of our strengths in being able to pair people with clients that would relate more to that architect or designer,” he said.
The firm never had racial quotas, according to Kinslow, who said they simply hired the most qualified person and sometimes that was a person from an underrepresented group.
“I think what we were trying to do was to make sure that we were interviewing everyone who applied and then picking the best person from that group,” he said. “And it just happened at different times that that was who that was.”
As a “strong believer” in the separation of church and state, Kinslow said the installation of the Ten Commandments at the university was “the final straw” that solidified his decision to cease his financial contributions, which he was already considering because of the issues with his diversity scholarship.
In a Monday email to the architecture school, Kinslow said he had not received formal notification from anyone at the university acknowledging his termination of the scholarships or the gift in his will. Kinslow said he still had not received a response as of Wednesday.
Once funding for a scholarship has been provided, a gift is considered complete and is not refundable, Thomas said.
“Completed gifts are not returned by the University of Arkansas Foundation, but are used to continue to benefit students, as closely as possible in line with the donor’s intent,” he said.
Kinslow provided money for his scholarships on an annual basis and said he would not do so moving forward, even if the Ten Commandments law is repealed “because it never should have happened.”
The U of A alum said he is still considering other organizations where he can direct the financial support he is rescinding from the university.
