“Race is the determinative factor in hundreds of admissions decisions each year. For the great majority of applicants, Asian Americans and whites have only one-tenth to one-fourth of the likelihood of admission as African American applicants with comparable academic credentials,” the release said on Thursday. "Yale rejects scores of Asian American and white applicants each year based on their race, whom it otherwise would admit."
As a condition of receiving millions of dollars in taxpayer funding, Yale expressly agrees to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a cornerstone civil-rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin in programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance, the release said.
The release made note of a US Supreme Court ruling that colleges receiving federal funds may consider applicants’ race in certain limited circumstances as one of a number of factors.
However, Yale University uses race at multiple steps of its admissions process resulting in a multiplied effect of race on an applicant’s likelihood of admission to racially balance its classes, the release said.
As a result, the Justice Department demanded Yale University agree not to use race or national origin in its upcoming 2020-2021 undergraduate admissions cycle, and, if Yale proposes to consider race or national origin in future admissions cycles, it must first submit to the Department a plan demonstrating its proposal is narrowly tailored as required by law, according to the release.