The Departments of Justice and Education have opened an investigation into Yale University’s admission practices to determine if the school has been illegally discriminating against Asian-American applicants, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The Justice Department opened a similar investigation into Harvard University for similar allegations last year, and a lawsuit has been filed against Harvard that goes to trial next month. The Justice Department supported the group in a court filing last month that read, in part, “Harvard’s race-based admissions process significantly disadvantages Asian-American applicants compared to applicants of other racial groups — including both white applicants and applicants from other racial minority groups.”
The investigations into Harvard and Yale are part of the Trump administration’s questioning of Obama-era guidelines that urge colleges to consider race as part of their admissions decisions.
The probe into Yale is based on a complaint filed in 2016 to the Justice and Education Departments by a group called the Asian American Coalition for Education. The filing named Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth as schools that illegally discriminate against Asian-American applicants based on their race.
The Education Department said in a letter that it was going to dismiss the allegations against Brown and Dartmouth due to lack of sufficient evidence, but said it is pursuing the investigation into Yale because there is “information related to a particular Asian-American applicant’s experience” applying there.
The civil rights divisions of the Department of Education and the Department of Justice opened the investigation into Yale in April, according to the letter.
Spokeswoman for the Justice Department Kelly Laco stated in regards to the probe, “The Department of Justice takes extremely seriously any potential violation of an individual’s constitutional rights.”
