WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is suing Yale University after prosecutors found the university was illegally discriminating against Asian American and white applicants, in violation of federal civil rights law.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Connecticut.
It alleges 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.”
It comes about two months after the Justice Department informed Yale that it was in violation of federal law.
Yale has denied those accusations and called the lawsuit “baseless.”
President Peter Salovey said in a letter to the Yale Community:
In August, I wrote to let you know about the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) allegation that Yale’s undergraduate admissions practices discriminate against Asian American and white applicants. Over the last few weeks, Yale has provided DOJ with information showing that this allegation is based on inaccurate statistics and unfounded conclusions, such as DOJ’s claim that the proportion of various racial groups admitted to Yale has remained stable for many years. In fact, in the last two decades, the percentage of admitted applicants fluctuated significantly for all groups. Despite our efforts to correct these misconceptions and the fact that Yale’s undergraduate admissions practices are perfectly consistent with decades of Supreme Court precedent, tonight DOJ filed a lawsuit against our university.
I want to be clear: Yale does not discriminate against applicants of any race or ethnicity. Our admissions practices are completely fair and lawful. Yale’s admissions policies will not change as a result of the filing of this baseless lawsuit. We look forward to defending these policies in court.
In thinking about this issue, it is important to bear in mind the quality of Yale’s admissions pool. Even if we thought that relying on GPA and test scores alone was in Yale’s best interest, we could not take that course because we have too many applicants with excellent academic qualifications. More important, Yale would not be well served by looking only at GPA and test scores, which do not provide a complete picture of each applicant.
Our admissions process considers as many aspects as possible of an applicant’s life experiences and accomplishments. That does include race and ethnicity, but only as one element in a multi-stage examination of the entire application file, which takes into account test scores, grades, teacher recommendations, extracurricular activities, military service, and many other factors. No single element is considered independently of the whole application. We take this approach because we know that exposure to a diverse student body improves students’ critical thinking, problem-solving, and leadership skills and prepares them to thrive in a complex, dynamic world.
As our country grapples with urgent questions about race and social justice, I have never been more certain that Yale’s approach to undergraduate admissions helps us to fulfill our mission to improve the world today and for future generations. We remain unwavering in our commitment to identifying applicants whose individual experiences and abilities will combine to create an extraordinary educational community.
CT Attorney General William Tong also issued a statement regarding the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit:
“This lawsuit is as baseless as it is offensive, and every aspect of it demonstrates complete and utter overreach. My office is exploring all legal avenues to support Yale University and its students. The Department of Justice action deviates starkly from decades of well-established legal precedent and threatens to disrupt admissions practices at hundreds of universities nationwide,” said Attorney General Tong. “Diversity matters. Equity and inclusion matter. Each and every one of us benefits from listening to the perspectives and experiences of those who are different from us. As a nation, we have failed to foster those conversations and have allowed far too many of our communities to persist in an unacceptable stasis of separate and unequal. Universities are not immune from systemic racism and other institutional inequality, and their efforts to confront our shared failings should be supported—not targeted. The timing and motivations behind this lawsuit are clear—to foment more hate and division on the eve of an election. As an Asian-American, this action is deeply offensive. It is shamefully ironic that this Administration purportedly seeks to take up the cause of Asian-American students after spending months actively inciting violence and hatred against the Asian-American community. This Administration has fully embraced its racist mantle as the last gasp of this failing Presidency.”
