The Iowa Supreme Court has blocked the University of Iowa from repurposing a scholarship created for Black science students, preserving the donor’s original intent and sending the case back to the district court. The ruling protects a fund established by Ezra Totton, a Black chemistry professor who left the bequest to help Black students study the physical sciences.

University officials argued the shift was necessary after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to ban race-conscious admissions, while Iowa’s attorney general said the scholarship’s race-based eligibility was unconstitutional.

The University aimed to change the eligibility guidelines for the scholarship to “first-generation” students, as opposed to those for whom the scholarship was created.

“While there is some overlap between the two student groups, these are distinct populations,” said Rita Bettis Austen, legal director for ACLU of Iowa, per Higher Ed Drive.

After his death in 1996, Totton left the endowment to specifically support “Black students majoring in the physical sciences, preferably chemistry.” The gift was left “out of gratitude to the University of Iowa for educating him in its graduate chemistry program during the Jim Crow era,” per court documents.

Opponents of the university’s plan, including the ACLU and NAACP, said the change would have diluted the scholarship’s purpose and weakened support for Black students at a campus where fewer than 3% of students are Black. The case now returns to the district court, where the donor’s intent will remain central.

“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 said.