The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled that the University of Iowa cannot simply redirect a privately funded scholarship — created specifically to support Black students in the physical sciences — to a broader pool of first-generation college students, dealing a significant blow to the university’s attempt to restructure the award in the wake of a 2023 federal affirmative action ruling. The court reversed the lower court’s dismissal but declined to approve the university’s proposed modification, sending the case back to district court for further proceedings.
The scholarship traces its origins to Dr. Ezra L. Totton, a chemistry professor and civil rights pioneer who died in 1996. His will left 40 percent of his estate equally among five charities, with the University of Iowa’s share designated to establish the “Ezra L. Totton Scholarship for Black students majoring in the physical sciences, preferably chemistry.” The university accepted a check for $35,000, and the fund has since grown to approximately $58,015. Notably, the estate’s accompanying letter instructed the university that if it could not comply with the bequest’s terms, it should return the funds immediately.
Dr. Totton’s life story lends the case particular gravity. After earning his undergraduate degree from Knoxville College, a historically Black institution, he was denied entry to the University of Tennessee’s graduate chemistry program in 1939 under a state law that made it a criminal offense for Black and white students to attend school together. He and five other Black students sued — their case part of the NAACP’s multi-state legal campaign, led by future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, that would eventually culminate in Brown v. Board of Education. After serving in a segregated Army unit during World War II, Dr. Totton was admitted to the University of Iowa, where he earned his master’s degree in chemistry. He went on to earn his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, completed postdoctoral work at Stanford, and spent 26 years as a tenured chemistry professor and department chair at North Carolina Central University, another HBCU.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, which held that race-based admissions programs violated the Equal Protection Clause, the University of Iowa sought court approval to modify the scholarship’s terms. Represented by the state attorney general, the university proposed replacing “Black students” with “first generation students.” A Johnson County district court declined to order the change, finding that no authority had conclusively established that the SFFA ruling applied to privately donated scholarship funds. The university appealed.
The Iowa Supreme Court agreed with the university on one point — but not the one it was hoping to win. The court held that administering the scholarship under its current race-based restriction has become at least “impracticable” under Iowa’s Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act, citing the university’s exposure to federal litigation risk. However, the court unanimously rejected the proposed switch to first-generation students, finding no support for it in the record. As the majority opinion stated, there is “a world of difference between Dr. Totton’s experience as a victim of a pernicious regime of de jure racial segregation and the life of a first-generation college student today.”
The ACLU of Iowa and the NAACP Iowa-Nebraska Conference filed an amicus brief arguing that the two populations are far from interchangeable. Rita Bettis Austen, Legal Director of the ACLU of Iowa, explained: “While there is some overlap between the two student groups, these are distinct populations — especially at the University of Iowa — and 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.”
The numbers bear that out starkly. Black students represent less than 3 percent of University of Iowa enrollment, compared to 19 percent who are first-generation students.
Dr. Totton’s nephew, Arthur Totten, concurred. “I do not believe that administering these scholarships to instead go to first-generation students would be consistent with my uncle’s intent,” he said. “His goal, informed by his own life experiences of challenging and overcoming barriers for Black people to advance in higher education and of Black individuals supporting each other in this endeavor, was to continue to help black students do the same.”
Betty Andrews, president of the NAACP Iowa-Nebraska State Area Conference of Branches, said the ruling preserves what Dr. Totton built. “We don’t agree with the U.S. Supreme Court decision that made the University of Iowa reconsider Dr. Totton’s scholarship, but we are pleased that today’s Iowa Supreme Court decision helps honor his legacy and preserves the possibility that his gift may continue advancing opportunities for African Americans.”
The case now returns to district court with specific guidance from the Supreme Court: an advocate for the donor’s intent must be allowed to participate, the court must consider Dr. Totton’s will in its entirety along with relevant extrinsic evidence, and permissible modifications include releasing the restriction or transferring the funds to another institution better positioned to honor his wishes — potentially one of the other charitable beneficiaries named in his will.
