Will the Biden administration turn a blind eye to discrimination in admissions?
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CounterCurrent: DoJ Reverses Course on Yale Lawsuit
Will the Biden administration turn a blind eye to discrimination in admissions?
CounterCurrent is the National Association of Scholars’ weekly newsletter, bringing you the biggest issues in academia and our responses to them.
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Category: Racial Preferences; Reading Time: ~2 minutes
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Last Wednesday, the Department of Justice (DoJ) dropped its lawsuit ([link removed]) against Yale University, which alleged that the school is in ongoing violation of civil rights law by discriminating against white and Asian applicants in undergraduate admissions. The Department’s existing investigation into this matter will remain open for the time being.
The DoJ first accused ([link removed]) Yale of said discrimination on August 13, 2020, after concluding a two year-long investigation into the university’s admissions practices. In a public letter ([link removed]) , the Department alleged in rather plain language that “Yale University violated, and is continuing to violate, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 … by discriminating on the basis of race and national origin … Yale’s discrimination is long-standing and ongoing.” Yale president Peter Salovey flatly denied ([link removed]) these allegations. The DoJ then gave Yale an August 27 deadline to cease its discriminatory practices, warning that failure to do so would result in a federal lawsuit.
Fast-forward two weeks: Yale missed its deadline and the DoJ filed its promised lawsuit ([link removed]) on October 8. In its press release, the Department wrote,
Yale refused to agree to the Department of Justice’s demand that Yale refrain from using race or national origin in its current 2020-2021 undergraduate admissions cycle. Yale also failed or refused ever to end its use of race in admissions, and Yale declined even to propose any changes to its pervasive use of race. The department therefore notified Yale that efforts at voluntary compliance had failed and filed suit.
Despite the strong, unequivocal language of the DoJ’s communications up until this point, it’s less than surprising that the Department dropped its lawsuit so suddenly, given the new presidential administration. For better or worse, Biden seems hell-bent on reversing ([link removed]) or otherwise neutralizing any and all legislation, executive orders, and lawsuits that were initiated during the Trump presidency, even those that were beneficial for civil rights and higher education. Indeed, it appears that Biden seeks to erase Trump from history using his EO-signing pen—to return to the “status quo ante Trump,” as one writer recently put it ([link removed]) .
We at the National Association of Scholars find this trajectory concerning. The Trump Administration was a mixed bag, to be sure, but it supported many of the causes for which we have advocated for decades, including Title IX reform ([link removed]) , concern about foreign influence ([link removed]) in higher ed, fighting race and sex preferences and stereotyping ([link removed]) , and free speech ([link removed]) . To return to the status quo ante Trump is in many ways to return to a less honest, principled, and virtuous academy. We urge Biden and his cabinet to pursue further reform rather than settling for the status
quo ante, or worse, actively setting American higher education back.
Until next week.
David Acevedo
Communications & Research Associate
National Association of Scholars
Read More ([link removed])
For more on racial preferences in higher education:
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January 25, 2021
** CFER Defends Merit in UC Admissions ([link removed])
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NAS
Californians for Equal Rights is fighting back against a proposed University of California policy change, one that would abolish standardized testing requirements on all ten campuses.
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November 17, 2020
** Surprise! Americans Oppose Discrimination ([link removed])
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John Rosenberg
When you spell out what "affirmative action" actually entails, Americans of every stripe vote against it. Race and sex preferences only pass when lawmakers obfuscate their true meaning.
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October 09, 2020
** Department of Justice Sues Yale for Racial Discrimination in Admissions ([link removed])
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David Acevedo
In August, Yale College was warned that it must make changes to its racially discriminatory admissions practices. It failed to do so and now faces a federal lawsuit.
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August 14, 2020
** Department of Justice Finds Yale Guilty of Racial Discrimination in Admissions ([link removed])
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David Acevedo
After a two year long investigation, the DOJ found that Yale University discriminates against undergraduate applicants based on race and is therefore in violation of Title VI.
** About the NAS
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