WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The US Department of Justice says it has found in an investigation that the Yale University is illegally discriminating against Asian-American and white applicants in its undergraduate admissions process.
DOJ said it found the Ivy League university had breached Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Yale discriminates based on race and national origin in its undergraduate admissions process. Race is the determining factor in hundreds of admissions decisions each year, The Department of Justice said in a press release.
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.
DOJ said that the two-year probe also exposed the fact that Yale University rejects scores of Asian American and white applicants each year based on their race, whom it otherwise would admit.
Although the Supreme Court has held that colleges receiving federal funds may consider applicants' race in certain limited circumstances as one of a number of factors, the Department of Justice found Yale's use of race is anything but limited.
'Yale uses race at multiple steps of its admissions process resulting in a multiplied effect of race on an applicant's likelihood of admission, and Yale racially balances its classes,' DOJ said.
The Department of Justice has demanded Yale agree not to use race or national origin in its upcoming 2020-2021 undergraduate admissions cycle.
In case Yale proposes to consider race or national origin in future admissions cycles, it must first submit to the Department of Justice a plan demonstrating its proposal is narrowly tailored as required by law, including by identifying a date for the end of race discrimination.
Yale strongly rejected the report's findings, and said it would not change its process 'because the DOJ is seeking to impose a standard that is inconsistent with existing law.'
DOJ is reportedly planning to file a lawsuit against the university if it failed to take 'remedial' measures.
DOJ launched an investigation in 2018, when some universities were facing legal challenges that aimed to overturn Supreme Court precedent permitting the consideration of race in college admissions.
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