Legal Question in Discrimination Law in Rhode Island

Re: college housing

Probably, yes. Especially if it is a private school.

Your only possible claim would probably be in contract (or implied contract), but it would depend upon what the school said/represented about housing availability when your son was deciding where to go, and what they said after he selected the school. I doubt they made any guarantees housing would be available to everyone, which would probably be necessary to support breach of contract.

The best you could probably say is that the school is unfairly preferring higher GPA students by denying the same opportunities to lower GPA students who pay identical tuition. But tuition is unrelated to room/board, and if you're not paying r/b, the school is not denying anything you paid to receive. The school is probably denying your son what he expected to receive -- r/b -- but unless there are written representations, there's probably not a winnable claim in court.

You could, however, make legal demand on the school on the grounds I mention, then use the threat of claim to negotiate an acceptable resolution, which you could probably work out. But I would not advise you to pursue the claim past the demand letter stage. Let me know if I can help out.