A view of Sterling Library at Yale University.
Stan Godlewski | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Yale University’s undergraduate admissions process “discriminates illegally” against White and Asian students, the Justice Department said Thursday.
A two-year inquiry into the Ivy League school found that “race is the determining factor in hundreds of admissions decisions each year,” in violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the DOJ said in a press release.
The department said Yale must agree not to use race as a national origin as criteria in its next permit cycle, and that if it intends to consider race in the future, “it must first submit a plan to the Department of Justice.” a plan which claims that its proposal has been narrowly amended as required by law, including by identifying a date for the end of racial discrimination. “
Yale denied the allegations. Karen Peart, a university spokeswoman, said in a statement to CNBC that the Department of Justice drew its conclusions before Yale provided enough information to show that his practices “absolutely comply with decades of Supreme Court precedent.”
“At Yale, we look at the whole person as we select who to admit among the many thousands of highly qualified applicants,” Peart said.
“We are proud of Yale’s admissions practices, and we will not change them on the basis of such a deserved, hasty accusation.”
Earlier this year, the DOJ asked a federal appeals court to overturn a preliminary ruling that Harvard College does not discriminate against Asian Americans in its admissions process.
The Yale DOJ’s probe found that Asian American and White students are one-tenth to one-fourth as likely to be admitted to the University of New Haven, Connecticut, as Black students with similar academic resumes, the press release said.
“There is no such thing as a nice form of racial discrimination,” Eric Dreiband, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, said in the press release. “Unlawful division of Americans into racial and ethnic blocks frees stereotypes, bitterness and division. It is past time for American institutions to recognize that all people should be treated with decency and respect and without legal respect for the color of their skin.”
The DOJ added: “Every year, Yale rejects scores of Asian American and White applicants based on their race, who would otherwise admit it.”
The Justice Department also accuses Yale of rationally balancing her classes.
In a separate letter, the department warned that if Yale does not agree to the required changes by August 27, the DOJ will be “ready to file a lawsuit to uphold Yale’s Title VI obligations.”
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