Columbia University (Thinkstock)
This is awkward, to say the least. Columbia University offers a fellowship, launched in 1920, that can only be awarded to someone from Iowa—someone white from Iowa.
To rectify this, the university is finally making changes to the Lydia C. Roberts graduate and traveling fellowship, which limits its recipients to the categories of Iowan and "Caucasian."
According to the New York Daily News, Columbia filed an affidavit with Manhattan’s supreme court to get the restriction lifted. "Circumstances have so changed from the time when the Trust was established" that complying with the restrictions is "impossible," the Daily News writes, quoting the filing. "Columbia University is now prohibited by law and University policy from discriminating on the basis of race."
The money was left to Columbia by Iowa native Lydia C. Chamberlain, who died in 1920. The fund's administrator is now JP Morgan Chase. The fellowships have not been awarded since 1997, according to the Daily News, although it's unclear
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