2015 Federal Complaints Against Harvard University's Alleged Discriminatory Admission Practice

On May 15, 2015, a coalition of more than 60 Asian-American organizations filed federal complaints with the United States Department of Education and Department of Justice against Harvard University. The coalition asked for a civil rights investigation into what it described as Harvard's discriminatory admission practices against Asian-American applicants.^[1][2][3] The complaints were dismissed in July 2015 because a lawsuit making similar allegations was filed by Students for Fair Admissions in November 2014.

Complaints

According to the complaints, multiple studies have indicated that Harvard has engaged in systematic and continuous discrimination against Asian Americans in its subjective “holistic” college admissions process. They say Asian-American applicants with near-perfect test scores, top-one-percent grade point averages, academic awards, and leadership positions are unjustifiably rejected by Harvard. The discriminatory practices Harvard is alleged to have used include racial stereotypes, racially differentiated standards, and de facto racial quotas.^[4] The studies cited in the complaints include:^[5]

• Golden (2007) The discrimination against Asian Americans by Harvard and other elite universities was so severe that Golden dedicated a chapter, "The New Jews”, to comparing it to the discrimination suffered by Jewish Americans in the 1920s and 1930s. He wrote that "most elite universities have maintained a triple standard in college admissions, setting the bar highest for Asians, next for whites and lowest for blacks and Hispanics".
• Espenshade & Radford (2009) Asian Americans have the lowest acceptance rate for each SAT test score bracket, needing to score on average 140 points higher than a white student, 270 points higher than a Hispanic student, and 450 points higher than a black student.^[6]
• Unz (2012) The percentage of Asians at Harvard peaked at over 20% in 1993, then immediately declined and thereafter remained roughly constant at a level 3–5 percentage points lower, despite the fact that the Asian-American population has more than doubled since 1993. "The relative enrollment of Asians at Harvard was plummeting, dropping by over half during the last twenty years, with a range of similar declines also occurring at Yale, Cornell, and most other Ivy League universities."
• Sander (2014) "No other racial or ethnic group at these three of the most selective Ivy League schools is as underrepresented relative to its application numbers as are Asian- Americans."

SFFA Lawsuit

The Project on Fair Representation, led by activist Edward Blum, aims to end racial classifications in education, voting procedures, legislative redistricting, and employment. An offshoot of this group, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), filed a lawsuit in federal district court against Harvard University on November 17, 2014. The coalition complaint by the Asian American organizations was filed in May 2015 and contained similar allegations to the SFFA lawsuit. For this reason, the coalition complaint was dismissed in July 2015. Harvard has filed a motion in court to halt the case until the Supreme Court clarifies relevant law in Fisher v. University of Texas for the second time. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear Fisher again and will likely issue a ruling by June 2016.

Responses

According to NPR,^[7] Harvard denied engaging in discrimination and said its admissions philosophy complies with the law. The school said the percentage of Asian-American students admitted has grown from 17% to 21% in a decade while the Asian-American population increased 6% during the same period.

The complaint received wide coverage from major media including CNN,^[8] International Business Times,^[2] The Washington Post,^[9] and Bloomberg News.^[10]

On June 5, 2015, The Wall Street Journal published an interview with one of the leaders of the coalition, YuKong Zhao.^[11]

See also

• Affirmative action in the United States

References

1. Asian American Coalition, ASIAN-AMERICAN GROUPS ACCUSE HARVARD OF DISCRIMINATION IN FEDERAL COMPLAINT.
2. Harvard Admissions Discrimination: Coalition Accuses University Of Bias Against Asian-Americans.
3. Harvard faces bias complaint from Asian-American groups.
4. Investigate Harvard's Discrimination against Asian American Applicants.
5. Complaint Against Harvard University and the President and Fellows of Harvard College for Discriminating Against Asian-American Applicants in the College Admission Process.
6. Espenshade, Thomas J.; Walton Radford, Alexandria (2009). No longer separate, not yet equal: race and class in elite college admission and campus life. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691141602.
7. Is Harvard Showing Bias Against Asian-Americans?
8. Asian-American groups accuse Harvard of discrimination
9. Asian-American groups challenge racial preferences in higher education
10. Bloomberg News, Harvard faces admissions bias complaint from Asian Americans.
11. Harvard’s Chinese Exclusion Act.