BOSTON — MIT has updated its website for a “women of color” program after a free speech group filed a federal civil rights complaint against the Cambridge campus for excluding white students.

The MIT program, “The Creative Regal Women of kNowledge” (CRWN), is at the center of the civil rights complaint filed against the university with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights earlier this week.

The Equal Protection Project nonprofit in the complaint claims that the MIT program for only women of color is discriminating on the basis of race, color, and sex.

After the complaint made headlines earlier this week, the MIT program’s website was edited.

“While our program is designed to support and celebrate undergraduate women of Color, participation is open to all students regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, and national origin,” the website now reads.

The CRWN website continues to state, “The CRWN is designed to inspire undergraduate women of Color which includes Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islanders, and other minoritized ethnicities.”

The Herald reached out to MIT about the website being edited, but MIT did not immediately respond. Earlier this week, a spokesperson for MIT said about the civil rights complaint, “MIT does not, as a practice, comment on legal matters.”

The Equal Protection Project nonprofit on Wednesday responded to the MIT program updating its website.

“MIT appears to be backing down on its racially and sexually exclusionary CRWN program by adding a new non-discrimination statement on the CRWN home page,” said William Jacobson, founder of the Equal Protection Project.

“That statement was added only after EqualProtect.org filed a Civil Rights Complaint, which generated enormous media coverage,” Jacobson added. “Clearly, MIT is reacting to the negative publicity.”

The CRWN program had not been open to everyone as MIT now claims, he said.

“MIT is trying to rewrite the exclusionary and discriminatory history of the CRWN program,” Jacobson said. “This raises questions as to whether MIT is sincere in opening up the program to all students regardless of race or sex.”

“MIT’s after-the-fact website wording change does not alter the serious violations of the civil rights laws that have been taking place for years,” he later added.

“The CRWN program’s exclusionary language necessarily deterred white female and all male students from applying. The OCR (Office of Civil Rights) should open a formal investigation and impose remedial and other sanctions on MIT.”

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