The Department of Education has launched a federal civil rights investigation into Harvard University over its legacy admissions practices, weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Harvard and barred the consideration of race in college admissions.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education confirmed to the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that the department had launched an investigation into the Ivy League school under the provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
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“The Office for Civil Rights can confirm that there is an open investigation of Harvard University under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” the spokesperson said. “We do not comment on open investigations.”
The investigation was opened in response to a complaint filed by Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston, which said that Harvard’s practice of legacy and donor admissions overwhelmingly advantaged white applicants, to the disadvantage of well-qualified minority applicants.
“Qualified and highly deserving applicants of color are harmed as a result, as admissions slots are given instead to the overwhelmingly white applicants who benefit from Harvard’s legacy and donor preferences,” the organization said in a press release this month.
In a letter to Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston, the department’s Office for Civil Rights said that while it had opened an investigation into the university, “opening the complaint for investigation in no way implies that OCR has made a determination on the merits of the complaint.”
The federal investigation comes weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that affirmative action, or considering an applicant’s race as a factor in admissions decisions, was illegal under federal law. The ruling stemmed from a group of Asian students who sued Harvard, alleging the elite university was limiting the admission of Asian applicants.
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In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Harvard spokeswoman Nicole Rura said that since the court’s ruling, the university has been “reviewing” its admissions practices “to assure compliance with the law and to carry forward Harvard’s longstanding commitment to welcoming students of extraordinary talent and promise who come from a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences.”
“Our review includes examination of a range of data and information, along with learnings from Harvard’s efforts over the past decade to strengthen our ability to attract and support a diverse intellectual community that is fundamental to our pursuit of academic excellence,” Rura continued. “As this work continues, and moving forward, Harvard remains dedicated to opening doors to opportunity and to redoubling our efforts to encourage students from many different backgrounds to apply for admission.”