EXCLUSIVE — A medical watchdog group has filed a federal civil rights complaint with the United States Department of Education alleging that a New York medical school engaged in illegal racial discrimination .

The complaint, filed by the medical watchdog group Do No Harm, accuses the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai of illegally discriminating on the basis of race by restricting eligibility for a fellowship program to individuals who are “Black/African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American/Alaska Native, [or] Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian.”

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The fellowship in question is the school’s Visiting Electives Program for Students Underrepresented in Medicine or VEPSUM fellowship, a program the school says is “designed to increase diversity in the house staff and the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and its affiliated institutions by helping talented minority medical students gain access to electives in our programs.”

“In violation of Title VI, medical students who are not members of one of the designated racial/ethnic groups above in bold are illegally excluded from the University’s ‘Visiting Electives Program for Students Underrepresented in Medicine (VEPSUM) Fellowship,'” the Do No Harm complaint says.

The organization urged the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate the matter.

In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Do No Harm program manager Laura Morgan said the fellowship’s restrictive eligibility is illegal and racially discriminatory.

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“Do No Harm has filed a federal civil rights complaint against the Icahn School of Medicine for a visiting student fellowship it is sponsoring for 3rd-year medical students,” Morgan said. “The program’s eligibility requirements state that applicants must belong to one of four specific racial/ethnic groups to apply. This is a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race. We look forward to the … Office for Civil Rights investigating and bringing resolution to this discriminatory program.”

A spokesperson for the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai told the Washington Examiner that “this complaint is closed,” but did not provide additional details.

The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.