Houston's Rice University is among 30 colleges and universities named in a federal civil rights complaint alleging a graduate recruitment program could be helping schools circumvent the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling against race-based college admissions.

The complaint, filed Thursday, Nov. 12, with the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, asks federal officials to investigate the Institute for Recruitment of Teachers (IRT) Consortium and whether participating universities provide preferential admissions consideration or financial benefits to students based on race.

The Equal Protection Project, a project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation, filed the complaint, arguing that the consortium could provide universities with a way to recruit students from a pool of applicants selected through a race-conscious program.