Civil rights officials at the U.S. Education Department are requiring the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center medical school to cease factoring race into admissions decisions, putting other institutions of higher education on notice that their continued use of affirmative action policies will draw federal scrutiny.
The mandate came in a deal the medical school struck with the Education Department in February, concluding a 14-year federal investigation into the university’s use of affirmative action, according to a copy of the resolution agreement viewed by The Wall Street Journal. Other schools in the Texas Tech University System, including the flagship undergraduate program, dropped their use of affirmative action during the investigation.
‘This shows the Trump administration is taking seriously its responsibility to enforce civil rights in a way that protects all Americans. The more schools that don’t use racial preferences, the harder it is for the remaining schools to justify their use of it.’ Roger Clegg, general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity, an anti-affirmative action advocacy group
The Texas Tech agreement marks the first time the Trump administration has asked a school to curtail its affirmative-action practices, and signals the administration’s desire to limit the extent to which universities can factor race into admissions. In the agreement, the administration suggested the medical school consider race-neutral factors to achieve its diversity goals, such as recruiting students from low-income areas and favoring bilingual or first-generation college students.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled universities may use affirmative action to increase diversity, but has left room for legal challenges. While it isn’t known whether the precise issues at play in the Texas Tech case will re-emerge at other schools, analysts expect the Trump administration will apply its strict understanding of the law on race-based admissions elsewhere. The administration is pursuing civil rights investigations into Harvard and Yale universities’ affirmative action practices over their treatment of Asian-American applicants.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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