A student leader at the University of Tulsa reacted with surprise to a recent complaint against the school alleging discrimination that cited his club.
A former U.S. Department of Education official under President Trump filed a civil rights complaint against TU on July 8, alleging several programs amount to discrimination.
Those programs include a club for TU’s Chinese students.
Drew Lam, a junior at TU, is secretary of the Chinese Students & Scholars Association.
“Honestly, I was shocked,” Lam said, “especially because of how low profile my organization is.”
Lam said the CSSA does not cater to many Chinese international students because of how few there are at TU.
“Most of them are, I found, to be grad students who, kind of, keep to themselves,” he said.
“If anything, we want to engage with them more, but we definitely don’t give them discriminatory preference over any other students. In fact, all of the cultural orgs on campus, we allow people of any walk of life.”
Lam said he’s concerned about the attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion programs by the Trump administration, praising his experiences with other cultural organizations during his college career.
“I’ve gotten to embrace my culture and meet other people from other walks of life that I never would have in high school or previously, which is really amazing.”
While TU lists the “Chinese Student Association” (CSA) on its website, the only active Chinese student organization on campus is the CSSA, according to Lam. A check of the Chinese Student Association’s Facebook page shows the most recent activity dating back to 2020.
Other CSSAs on college campuses have come under scrutiny for alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
“That is not us. We are sharing only a name with them,” Lam said, insisting TU’s CSSA is solely a cultural club.
The civil rights complaint against TU lists other programs, including math workshops for middle school girls.
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