Yale University illegally discriminates against Asian and white applicants in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Justice Department said Thursday.
The agency said a two-year investigation into the Ivy League school found that Asian and white applicants “one-tenth to one-fourth” have the chance to qualify as African-American applicants with the same references.
Officials on Thursday formally quoted the latter in a letter to Yale lawyers, claiming that the school “every year rejects the scores of Asian American and white applicants based on their race, which it would otherwise admit.”
“There is no such thing as a fun form of racial discrimination,” Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband said in a statement.
“Racial discrimination by Yale imposes disproportionate and unjustified fines on applicants who are racially disadvantaged, including in particular Asian American and White applicants.”
The Department of Justice instructed Yale to stop using race in permits for next year and said it should submit a proposal if it intends to do so in the future.
Dreiband said Yale is bound to abide by the Civil Rights Act as a recipient of “millions of dollars in taxpayer funding.”
“Illegally dividing Americans into racial and ethnic blocs promotes stereotypes, bitterness and division,” Dreiband said.
“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 Supreme Court has found that colleges can allow race in admissions, but that it should be limited in scope and duration. Dreiband said Yale has exaggerated those restrictions.
“Yale uses race at multiple stages of its admissions process, resulting in a multiplier effect of race on an applicant’s chance of admission, and Yale balances its race classes,” the DOJ said.
In a statement, Yale said it “categorically denies this accusation” and accused the feds of making conclusions before they got all the facts.
“Given our commitment to comply 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.
“If the department had received this information in full and weighed in, it would have concluded that Yale’s practices absolutely complied with decades of Supreme Court precedent.”
The university insists it considers many factors and looks at “the whole person in selecting who will be admitted among the many thousands of highly qualified applicants.”
The Department of Justice made the same accusation against Harvard University after Asian applicants filed a lawsuit against the school alleging discrimination.
A federal judge dismissed that indictment in 2019 and the verdict is being appealed.
With post threads
.
