WASHINGTON (AP) — Over 50 universities are currently under investigation for alleged racial discrimination as part of President Donald Trump’s initiative to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that his administration claims marginalize white and Asian American students.
The Education Department revealed the new investigations on Friday, just one month after dispatching a memo cautioning America’s educational institutions that they could lose federal funding due to “race-based preferences” in admissions, scholarships, or any aspect of student life.
“Students should be evaluated based on their merit and achievements, not prejudged by the color of their skin,” stated Education Secretary Linda McMahon. “We will not waver on this commitment.”
The majority of these new inquiries are directed at colleges’ affiliations with the PhD Project, a nonprofit organization aimed at assisting students from underrepresented backgrounds to obtain business degrees in a bid to diversify the business sector.
Department officials indicated that the organization limits eligibility based on race, asserting that colleges cooperating with it are “participating in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs.”
A group of 45 colleges currently facing scrutiny over their connections with the PhD Project includes significant public institutions such as Arizona State, Ohio State, and Rutgers, alongside prestigious private universities like Yale, Cornell, Duke, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
A response from the PhD Project was not immediately available.
Additionally, six other colleges are under investigation for offering “impermissible race-based scholarships,” while another is accused of operating a program that segregates students based on race.
The institutions being investigated include Grand Valley State University, Ithaca College, the New England College of Optometry, the University of Alabama, the University of Minnesota, the University of South Florida, and the University of Tulsa School of Medicine.
The department did not specify which of the seven is being investigated for allegations of segregation.
The February 14 memo from Trump’s Republican administration represents a broad extension of a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that prohibited colleges from considering race in admissions.
This decision primarily addressed admissions processes at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, but the Education Department indicated it will interpret the ruling to ban race-based policies in every aspect of education, throughout both K-12 schools and higher education.
In the memo, Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, claimed that schools’ and colleges’ diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives have been “smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into regular training, programming, and discipline.”
The memo is facing legal challenges from the two largest teachers’ unions in the country, who allege that the memo is overly vague and infringes upon educators’ free speech rights.
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