The Trump administration escalated its assault on diversity initiatives in higher education Thursday, accusing Yale University's medical school of illegally factoring race into admission decisions. The accusation marks the second such federal action against a major medical institution this month.
In a formal letter, Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department's assistant attorney general for civil rights, claimed investigators found stark disparities favoring Black and Hispanic applicants despite their lower academic credentials. Yale Black students in the most recent class carried a median GPA of 3.88 and a 95th percentile MCAT score, while Asian students posted a 3.98 GPA and a perfect 100th percentile MCAT score. White students matched Asian applicants on standardized tests while slightly trailing on GPA at 3.97.
The analysis concluded that Black applicants received as much as 29 times higher odds of securing an interview than equally qualified Asian candidates, according to Dhillon's letter. She framed Yale's holistic admissions process as a deliberate vehicle for race-conscious decision making.
The Justice Department is demanding Yale enter a voluntary compliance agreement and threatened legal action under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act if the university refuses. Dhillon noted the school's own previous argument before the Supreme Court that eliminating racial considerations would make diverse classes impossible to maintain, then pointed to Yale's sustained enrollment diversity post-Supreme Court ruling as evidence the school had engaged in unlawful discrimination.
The 2023 Supreme Court decision eliminating affirmative action in college admissions provided the legal foundation for this and similar enforcement actions now underway. UCLA's medical school received a similar warning last week. The administration views these programs as illegal discrimination masquerading as diversity.
Yale officials did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations. The university's attorney, Peter Spivack, also remained silent on the matter.
This push reflects the broader conservative agenda to dismantle race-conscious admissions nationwide. However, the administration's aggressive posture on the issue has drawn pushback. In March, a coalition of 17 Democratic state attorneys general filed suit challenging a Trump policy requiring higher education institutions to report data proving they ignore race in admissions decisions.
Author James Rodriguez: "Yale built its whole argument around needing race to achieve diversity, then Yale achieved that diversity anyway. The inconsistency is fatal, and the DOJ knows it."
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