In an investigation, the Department of Justice (DOJ) found that Yale University discriminates against Asian American and White applicants through the undergraduate admissions process, a violation of a federal civil rights law.
What We Know:
- The two-year investigation, which stemmed from a 2016 complaint against Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth, concluded that Yale “rejects scores of Asian American and White applicants each year based on their race, whom it otherwise would admit,” the Justice Department said. “Yale’s race discrimination imposes undue and unlawful penalties on racially-disfavored applicants, including in particular Asian American and White applicants,” Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband, who heads the department’s civil rights division, wrote in a letter to the college’s attorneys.
- The Supreme Court has previously ruled that colleges and universities may consider race in admissions decisions, however, it also said that it must be done in a narrowly tailored way to promote diversity. But the department described Yale’s use of race as “anything but limited”.
- Prosecutors found that Yale had been discriminating against applicants based on their race and national origin and that race even plays a “determinative factor” in hundreds of admission decisions every year. The investigation concluded that both Asian American and white students have only “one-tenth to one-fourth of the likelihood of admission as African American applicants with comparable academic credentials”. The investigation also alleges that Yale uses race at multiple steps of its admissions process, multiplying the effect of race on an applicant’s chances of admission. Additionally, it said the school racially balances its classes.
- Yale denied the allegation, calling it “meritless” and “hasty”. In a statement, Yale said it “categorically denies this allegation,” has cooperated fully with the investigation, and has been continually providing “a substantial amount of information and data”. The university said if the Department had fully received the data and weighed the information, they would find that Yale does in fact comply with the Supreme Court precedent.
- “The department’s allegation is baseless,” said Peter Salovey, Yale’s president. “At this unique moment in our history, when so much attention properly is being paid to issues of race, Yale will not waver in its commitment to educating a student body whose diversity is a mark of its excellence.” In a statement, Yale said it considers a multitude of factors and looks at “the whole person when selecting whom to admit among the many thousands of highly qualified applicants”.
- As a result of the investigation, the Justice Department demanded that Yale immediately stop its current admission process and agree from now on not to use race or national origin as a factor in upcoming admissions. The Department also told the college that if they do want to consider race as allowed by the Supreme Court percent in future admission cycles, they must first submit a plan to the DOJ for approval. Yale said they will not be changing their admissions process at this time.
- Senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Rachel Kleinman, said that she was “shocked but not surprised” by the Justice Department’s finding. “This particular Department of Justice has been laser-focused on ending affirmative action,” she said, adding that she believed the finding was “a foregone conclusion before they started their investigation”.
- Previously, the Justice Department raised similar concerns about Harvard University, where prosecutors accused the college of “engaging in outright racial balancing,” siding with Asian American students who filed a lawsuit claiming the Ivy League discriminated against them. Those charges were later cleared by a federal judge who upheld affirmative action.
The DOJ is expected to attempt to enforce its directive via a lawsuit if Yale does not voluntarily agree by August 27th to suspend the use of race in undergraduate admissions.
