Yale University Under Federal Investigation For Race-Based Discrimination Allegations

Federal authorities are investigating Yale University's admission practices following accusations of discrimination against Asian-American applicants, officials said Wednesday.

According to a letter from the Education Department’s office to the student who filed a complaint against Yale, the department along with the Justice Department has begun a probe into accusations of race-based admissions policies at the university “by treating applicants differently based on race during the admissions process,” The New York Times reported.

Yale President Peter Salovey confirmed the investigation, however, denied the allegations saying “Yale does not discriminate in admissions against Asian Americans or any other racial or ethnic group.”

He added that the admission procedure considers "the whole person" and has created "a vibrant and varied academic community."

“Yale College could fill its entire entering class several times over with applicants who reach the 99th percentile in standardized testing and who have perfect high school grade point averages,” Salovey said. “We take into consideration a multitude of factors, including their academic achievement, interests, demonstrated leadership, background, success in taking maximum advantage of their secondary school and community resources, and the likelihood that they will contribute to the Yale community and the world,” Bloomberg reported.

"This investigation takes place in the context of legal challenges at other universities aimed at overturning Supreme Court precedent permitting the consideration of race in college admissions," Salovey said, NBC News reported.

The news of the civil rights investigation comes a few weeks after the Justice Department publicly sided with an Asian-American group who accused Harvard of similar discriminating practices.

The probe is in response to a 2016 complaint from the New Jersey-based Asian American Coalition for Education which accused Yale, Brown University and Dartmouth College of unfairly denying Asian-American applicants admission by treating them differently based on their race.

Education Department officials said they had enough information to start the probe against Yale. They, however, dismissed charges against the other two institutes.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the probe but said it "takes extremely seriously any potential violation of an individual's constitutional rights."

Students for Fair Admissions, a separate group, sued Harvard earlier claiming similar discrimination against Asian-American applicants. It also alleged that the university consistently gave them lower scores in categories that rate their personal characteristics.

The Harvard University on Wednesday filed court papers in the suit opposing the department's arguments backing Students for Fair Admission. Harvard said the government "relies almost exclusively" upon "inaccurate" allegations made by the group.

"The government’s argument highlights once again that its true objective here appears to be to make it legally impossible for universities to consider race in admissions," Harvard said.

Responding to the investigation, Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington said, "It is time for Harvard and other top schools that consider race and ethnicity in the name of 'diversity' to stop what they are doing. This is 2018 and the government should follow a color-blind approach.”