Complaint against Yale filed. AAPI group calls for investigation

By Randall Yip, Executive Editor

A New Jersey-based group calling itself Asian American Coalition for Education this week filed a civil rights complaint against Yale.

The group is asking the Department of Education to investigate whether Yale discriminated against Asian applicants during the 2023-2024 application cycle following the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard/UNC Supreme Court ruling.

“Usually when race is banned, Asian American enrollment goes up,” said Swan Lee of the Asian American Coalition for Education during an interview with AsAmNews. “So it is very strange that at Yale it went down. We think this warrants an investigation by the government.”

Enrollment at Yale University, went from 30% to 24% in just one year following the Scotus ruling while at MIT it increased 7 percentage points to 47% and at John Hopkins it went from 32% to 46%.

Princeton, however, saw a decline of 2% while Harvard reported no change.

“Where, Asian American enrollment might have dropped, if needed, we might also file complaint against those colleges, too,” said Lee.

However, Bethany Li, Executive Director of Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York questions whether the Harvard Supreme Court ruling is being interpreted properly by both AACE and the Trump administration.

“The SFFA decision actually technically doesn’t apply to any university or college other than Harvard or North Carolina,” she said during a phone interview with AsAmNews. “So I find it troubling that there has been this conflation that other colleges need to follow it. I think this DOE complaint is a way to weaponize the agency in a way against its constituents.”

Asian American Advancing Justice Southern California also questions the reasoning behind the complaint.

“It’s unclear what exactly are the race proxies that AACE is alleging Yale is unlawfully using, as AACE’s main argument seems to be the fact that there are less Asian students being admitted at Yale means it must be happening. AACE claims Yale should not consider information like an applicant’s zip code, school districts or individual school names, but these are exactly what is needed to ensure colleges and universities can identify students from low-income neighborhoods or school districts, which remain admissible and important factors for maintaining strong student talent,” said Connie Joe, CEO of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California.

ACCE points to a letter from the Department of Education to support its call for an inquiry.

In that letter, The Department of Education wrote “These institutions’ embrace of
pervasive and repugnant race-based preferences and other forms of racial discrimination have emanated throughout every facet of academia. For example, colleges, universities, and K-12 schools have routinely used race as a factor in admissions, financial aid, hiring, training, and other institutional programming.”

AALDEF which has filed several court briefs in support of race in college admissions believes AACE efforts are being misdirected.

“I think that school should be looking closely at legacy admissions. How does that impact their selection process. I think that outreach to a wide variety of communities is incredibly important. We should really not be thinking of education as a zero-sum game. Everyone can agree on the fact that we should increase opportunities and make the pie bigger,” Li said.

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