The Justice Department said Thursday it would investigate four University of California for potential “illegal DEIs” in admissions, suggesting schools would ban state law and U.S. Supreme Court precedents from using race as a factor in assessing university applicants.
We have announced actions from UCLA, UC Irvine, Stanford University, Berkeley, California and Atty. General Pam Bondy said she and President Trump are “focused on ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunities across the country.”
In a statement from the Department of Justice, the investigation described it as a “compliance review” in a short 248-word news release with little detail, no timeline. It usually cited no evidence of illegal practices or complaints that elicited the federal government to study university practices.
They also sought to rebrand Affirmative Behavior, a term used for decades as a DEI for short for diversity, equity and inclusion. The relatively new phrase was at the heart of Trump’s war on federal departments, university research grants, academic programming and corporate diversity practices. Trump argues Day’s efforts will hurt white people and Asian people, promoting individuals based on race rather than merit.
“For decades, elite colleges and universities have prioritized racial allocations, all in the name of DEI, over equal opportunity, splitting Americans, and discriminating against an entire group of applicants,” the department’s announcement states.
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for details on the plan.
UC spokesman Rachel Zaenz said in a statement that UC ceased the use of race in schools when Prop. 209 came into effect in 1997, banning the consideration of race in public education, employment and contracts.
Since then, “UC has been implementing admissions practices to comply with the law,” Zaentz said. “At the same time, we are still committed to expanding access to all qualified students. The UC undergraduate admissions application collects the race and ethnicity of students for statistical purposes. This information will not be shared with application reviewers and will not be used for admission.”
UC promotes its overall admissions process, including legal methods to find racially diverse applicants, including outreach to diverse high school communities.
Stanford spokesman Dee Motofi said in a statement that private universities have stopped considering race for admission after 2023 after ruling positive lawsuits were unconstitutional.
“We remain committed to fulfilling our obligations under the law,” Mostofi said. “We don’t have any details about today’s announcement, but we look forward to learning more about their concerns and responding to departmental questions.”
Trump’s war with Day
The hospitalization investigation is the latest chapter in a broader push for schools and universities around DEI efforts, many of which are outside of hospitalization, with liberal and conservative legal experts saying they are within the scope of the law.
The Department of Education issued guidance to all schools and universities in February that diversity programs are at risk of losing federal grants, including minority-focused scholarships and black and Latino graduation ceremonies.
In response, the school either closed or changed its name to either diversity offices or positions and changed them to remove the words of diversity and equity. USC has concluded its campus-wide diversity office and merged with the “culture” team and faculty who worked on division-level websites for diversity languages. Last week, the University of California announced it would ban campuses from requiring faculty applicants to submit a “diversity statement” when applying for employment.
On Thursday, USC announced it had removed “diversity, fairness, and inclusion” from its “unified value” list. On the same day, the University of Michigan, a pioneer in the diversity program, said it would close its central office and ban the employment diversity statement.
The Education Department also looked into dozens of campuses under allegations that they illegally partnered with Berkeley, California, Polihumbold, California, San Bernardino, California, and dozens of campuses with the PHD Project, a New Jersey nonprofit that promotes workplace diversity by connecting business school students with students. The department accused nonprofits of restricting participation based on race. The PhD project said it had changed its policy this month to make it open to everyone.
The campus will need to respond to the Trump administration through Monday with details of its connections with nonprofits.
The Department of Justice’s proposal that the University of California is breaking admissions laws shows a new level of scrutiny on campus.
The 2023 Supreme Court decision overturned positive behaviour and led to a decline in Stanford and dozens of elite universities in enrollment for black and Latino students. UC remains or grows in campus-by-campus registrations for each campus. UCLA has significantly improved its Black and Latino student applications and enrollment after more than 25 years of target outreach.
Over the years, UC has moved from using “academic indexes” based on test scores and GPA to admission to a comprehensive review that takes into account 13 factors including GPA, coursework rigour, talent and life experience. Admission Supervision states that applicants are not compared to all others across the board, but more directly to their school and peers in similar socioeconomic situations. Most selective universities, including USC, also employ an overall review.
Still, UC is facing lawsuits and criticism over hospitalization. In February, a group called anti-racism students filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing UC of illegally considering race when accepting new students. The complaint argued that long-term growth of black and Latino registrations in the system is not possible under Proposition 209 and the 2023 Supreme Court decision. Lawyers representing the group include lawyers for America First Legal, founded by President Trump’s Deputy Chief of Policy Staff, Stephen Miller.
Anti-Semitism Surveys Hits Pomona College
It also believes on Thursday, a Congressional Committee on Education, which believes it has failed to protect Jewish students, sent a harsh wording letter to Pomona University in Claremont.
The U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor Letters requested information on the aftermath of Hamas on October 7, 2023, the attacks on Israel, and the “several anti-Semitism incidents” amid the war in Gaza.
A letter signed by Committee Chairperson Rep. Tim Wahlberg (R-Mich.) and Burgess Owens (R-Utah), chair of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, details several incidents that took place on the campus of the Elite School of Free Arts.
Among the episodes was a protest in April 2024, when 20 pro-Palestinian protesters stormed and occupied the University Presidential Office. The graduation plan was defeated a month later when a pro-Palestinian activist built a tent on the main stage and moved the ritual to LA.
The letters of Walberg and Owens sought documents related to some of the outbreaks it described, and a list of all “student disciplinary/action cases” related to anti-Semitism since the October 7 attack. “Identify all cases in which the suspected perpetrator was involved in previous disciplinary cases,” council members requested.
Pomona College acknowledged its receipt of the letter, saying in a statement it is “solidly committed to ensuring the rights of all students, including Jewish students, to Pomona education.”
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