UT professor Richard Lowery filed a lawsuit Sunday against the Texas A&M University System disputing a faculty program that the lawsuit argues uses discriminatory practices. 

The lawsuit, filed by associate finance professor Lowery, said Texas A&M University System’s Accountability, Climate, Equity and Scholarship Faculty Fellows program, known as ACES Plus, discriminates against white and Asian men by increasing the number of faculty members from underrepresented groups. 

The lawsuit alleges that the program violates Title VI, which prevents racial discrimination, Title IX, which prevents sex discrimination and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which prevents states from drawing distinctions between individuals based on differences such as race or gender. 

Jonathan Mitchell and the America First Legal group, a legal organization led by some of former President Donald Trump’s advisers, are representing Lowery. 

The lawsuit is suing the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, board leadership, vice president and associate provost for diversity Annie S. McGowan and vice president for faculty affairs N.K. Anand. 

Through the ACES Plus program, Anand plans to allocate $2 million over the next two years to match the base salary and benefits up to $100,000 per person, for new mid-career and tenure-track hires from underrepresented groups, according to a memo signed by McGowan and sent to Texas A&M University deans in July. 

The lawsuit claims Texas A&M and “nearly every university in the United States” conducts discriminatory practices that benefit female or non-Asian minorities. Lowery claims that as a result, he could not compete with other applicants for the job, as he is a white man, according to the lawsuit. 

Lowery asked that the court declare Texas A&M in violation of Title VI, Title IX and the Equal Protection clause, along with requesting a court monitor to oversee hiring and promotion decisions and the diversity office at Texas A&M.

The lawsuit was an “unusual job application,” said Laylan Copelin, vice chancellor of marketing and communications for the Texas A&M University System, in a statement. He said Texas A&M’s lawyers would review the lawsuit and take necessary action. 

UT declined to comment on the lawsuit. 

In 2021 The U.S. Department of Education recognized Texas A&M as a Hispanic Serving Institution. This is a step taken to ensure that the University’s faculty better reflects the population of Texas and serves its expanding number of low-income, first-generation Hispanic students, according to the memo.

“Increasing opportunities for underserved students to interact and engage with faculty that share their ethnic, life and cultural experiences are essential to achieving this goal,” McGowen said in the memo. 

Texas A&M defines underrepresented minorities as African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, Native Americans, Alaskan Natives and Native Hawaiians, according to the memo. 

About 65% of the staff at Texas A&M is white, according to data from 2022, while about 16% of staff is Hispanic and about 7% is Black. 

“Texas A&M’s proclaimed goal of establishing a faculty whose racial composition attains ‘parity with that of the state of Texas’ seeks to achieve racial balancing, which is flatly illegal under Title VI and the binding precedent of the Supreme Court,” according to the lawsuit.