Lawsuit v. Harvard to go to trial; Yale admissions under scrutiny

Members of the South Asian Law Students Assocication at Yale University.

ASAM NEWS

THE DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT against Harvard charging anti-Asian bias is set to be heard as scheduled on Oct. 15 while Yale is the target of a new federal investigation following similar allegations.
Reuters reports U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs rejected motions by both sides in the Harvard case to rule in their favor before the trial could even begin.

The lawsuit spearheaded by White anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum accuses Harvard of discriminating against Asian Americans in favor of less qualified applicants from under represented groups.

“The credibility of the expert witnesses in making these critical modeling and analytical choices is best evaluated at the upcoming bench trial,” said Judge Burroughs in her written ruling, reported Bloomberg.

A representative of Harvard told Bloomberg it's looking forward to going to trial.

“Thorough and comprehensive analysis of the evidence makes clear that Harvard College does not discriminate against applicants from any group, including Asian Americans, whose share of the admitted class has grown significantly by 27 percent since 2010.”

Blum declined to comment.

According to Inside Higher Ed, Yale is now also being investigated for anti-Asian bias. The U.S. Department of Education announced the investigation on Wednesday in response to a 2016 complaint accusing Yale, Brown University and Dartmouth College of unfairly denying admission to Asian Americans because of their race.

The cases against Brown and Dartmouth were turned down by the Department of Justice but supported the complainty on Yale because they felt there was a stronger case there. Yale admission of Asian Americans have gone down even though the overall U.S. population of that group has risen.

Yale President Peter Salovey strongly denies the accusatons, saying Yale looks at the complete person when deciding who gets into the Ivy League school.

The American Association for Access, Equity and Diversity says Asian Americans are being used by anti-affirmative action forces.

“They are using the complaints of Asian students as a pretext for their efforts to eliminate the use of race as a factor among many to achieve a diverse student body at selective institutions,” said the group’s executive director, Shirley J. Wilcher. 

“In my view, the issue is not between Asian students and disadvantaged minorities; it is between Asian students and those privileged individuals who have historically benefited by being children of alumni, members of families who make financial contributions, graduates of feeder schools, athletes.”

The anti-affirmative action group, Center for Equal Opportunity, applauded the investigation. Speaking about the opposition, the group’s president said “it shows the openness of the administration to pursuing cases against other schools, which means that all schools using preferences need to review their programs,” he said.

Asian Americans make up six percent of the U.S. population, but almost 22 percent of the freshman class at Harvard. Asian Americans make up 35 percent of undergraduates at UC Berkeley which does not consider race and ethnicity in admissions.

Views From the Edge contributed to ths report.
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