A Justice Department investigation has found that Yale University is illegally discriminatory against Asian American and White candidates, in violation of federal civil rights law, officials said Thursday. Yale denied the allegations, calling it “meritorious” and “urgent.”
The findings, detailed in a letter to high school attorneys Thursday, highlight the Trump administration’s latest action targeting discrimination in the college’s application, following complaints from students about the process at some colleges Ivy League. The Department of Justice had previously filed court papers siding with Asian American groups who had similar allegations against Harvard University.
The two-year investigation concluded that Yale “rejects scores of Asian American and White applicants each year based on their race, which would otherwise indicate,” the Justice Department said. The investigation stems from a 2016 complaint against Yale, Brown and Dartmouth.
“Racial discrimination by Yale imposes disproportionate and unjustified fines on applicants who are racially disadvantaged, including in particular Asian American and White applicants,” wrote Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband, who heads the Department of Civil Rights. the department has, in a letter to the college’s lawyers.
Attorneys found that Yale discriminates against applicants for her undergraduate program based on her race and national origin and “that race is the determining factor in hundreds of admissions decisions each year.” The study concluded that Asian American and White students “have only one-tenth to one-fourth of the chances of qualifying as African-American applicants with similar academic credentials,” the Justice Department said.
“Illegal division of Americans into racial and ethnic blocs frees stereotypes, bitterness and division,” Dreiband said in a statement. “It is past time for American institutions to recognize that all people should be treated with decency and respect and without undue attention to the color of their skin.”
The study also found that Yale uses race as a factor in multiple stages of the admissions process and that Yale “balances his classes racistly.”
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The Supreme Court has judged colleagues and universities can consider race in admissions decisions, but has said it should be done in a narrowly tailored way to promote diversity and be limited in time. Schools also bear the brunt of showing why their consideration of race is appropriate.
In a statement, Yale said it “categorically denies this allegation”, fully cooperated in the investigation and has continuously “turned on a substantial amount of information and data”.
“Given our commitment to complying with federal law, we are dismayed that the DOJ has made its provision before Yale can provide all the information the department has requested so far,” the university said in a statement. “Had the department fully received this information and weighed in, it would have concluded that Yale’s practices absolutely complied with decades of Supreme Court precedent.”
The university said it considers a number of factors and looks at “the whole person in selecting who will qualify among the many thousands of highly qualified applicants.”
“We are proud of Yale’s admissions practices, and we will not change them based on such a deserved, hasty accusation,” the statement said.
The Department of Justice has demanded that Yale stop immediately and agree not to use race as a national origin for upcoming permits. The government also says that if Yale proposes that it will continue to use race as a national origin as a factor in future admission cycles, the college must first submit a plan to the Department of Justice “proving that its proposal is narrowly adjusted as required by law” , including by identifying a date for the end of racial discrimination. “
The Department of Justice has also previously raised similar concerns regarding Harvard University, which accused prosecutors of “participating in racial balancing,” siding with Asian American students in a lawsuit alleging that the Ivy League school discriminated against them.
A federal judge in 2019 removed Harvard of discrimination against Asian American applicants in a ruling that was seen as a major victory for supporters of affirmative action in college colleges in the US. This ruling has been appealed and arguments are scheduled for next month.
In the Harvard case, the Department of Justice had ruled that the university went too far in its use of race, but the judge disagreed. Although the Supreme Court has ruled that the use of colleges of race in admissions should be “narrowly adjusted” and can only be a “plus factor”, rulings for past colleges still give latitude when considering a wide range of factors, including race, because they build their classes.
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