Justice Dept. accuses Yale of discriminating against Asians and Whites

Yale University used an admissions process that discriminated against Asians and Whites, according to a Department of Justice investigation. 

“There is no such thing as a nice form of race discrimination,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Civil Rights Division. “Unlawfully dividing Americans into racial and ethnic blocs fosters 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 unlawful regard to the color of their skin. "

The DOJ has given Yale until August 27 to stop using race in its application process. , However, Yale said Thursday that it is not planning to change the way it evaluates student applicants. In a statement, the university said that it looks at the “whole person” when deciding whether to admit a student — not just academic achievement, but interests, leadership and “the likelihood that they will contribute to the Yale community and the world.”

"We are proud of Yale's admissions practices, and we will not change them on the basis of such a meritless, hasty accusation," the university said.

“The department’s allegation is baseless,” Yale president Peter Salovey said to the New York Times. “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.”

The university noted that race is only one factor when considering applicants.Of the students admitted last fall, 26% were Asian or Asian American, said the school. Whites made up 49% of the admitted students, Blacks 12%, Hispanics 15%.

The Justice Department allege that Yale discriminates based on race and national origin in its undergraduate admissions process, and that race is the determinative factor in hundreds of admissions decisions each year. For the great majority of applicants, Asian Americans and whites have only one-tenth to one-fourth of the likelihood of admission as African American applicants with comparable academic credentials. Yale rejects scores of Asian American and white applicants each year based on their race, whom it otherwise would admit. 

In an interview with NPR, Art Coleman, an attorney and former deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights under the Clinton administration, raised questions about the strength of the Justice Department's case.

"The case here is thin at best," he said. "Thin in terms of underlying evidence." comparing the 4-page report for Yale and the 100-page complaint against Harvard. A federal judge ruled in favor of Harvard's application process.

The DOJ investigation against Yale began in April 2018 based o a 2016 complaint Yukong Zhao sent to the Justice Department alleging that three Ivy League schools — Yale, Brown University and Dartmouth College — all “unfairly denied undergraduate admission to Asian American applicants by treating them differently based on their race during the admission process.” The DOJ dismissed the complaints against Dartmouth and Brown because it found insufficient evidence of discrimination at those schools.

The U.S. Supreme Court has issued numerous ruling that allowed the use of race in school's  admission process as one factor in evaluating student applicants.

“These findings are yet another politically motivated attempt by the Trump Administration to dismantle civil rights protections and, in the process, divide communities of color,” said Katrina Dizon Mariategue, acting executive director of SEARAC. 

“In the wake of a great uprising for racial justice that has mobilized marginalized people across the country, the Trump Administration is wielding the harmful model minority myth to undermine Black and brown communities, as well as Asian American communities including Southeast Asian Americans. We reject these divisions and refuse to allow Asian Americans to be manipulated to deny others educational access and opportunity.”