The Trump Administration has opened investigations into 3 medical schools. The administration states that it had concerns about potential race-based discrimination in admissions. Medical schools at the University of California – San Diego, the Ohio State University College of Medicine, and Stanford University received multiple letters on Wednesday, March 25, demanding 7 years of data around standardized test scores, applicants’ race, relations to donors, zip codes, and internal communications of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), according to The New York Times.
Through a series of executive and investigational actions, President Trump has been stepping up scrutiny of universities he minimizes as overrun by liberal influence. The administration previously aimed undergraduate admissions at selective colleges, commanding that they collect information to show they are in line with a 2023 Supreme Court decision forbidding affirmative action in college admissions. Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, announced the investigation in a post on X (Twitter) on March 26, Thursday, sharing the Times article on the data for more follow-ups.
The schools were given until April 24 to turn over the information. According to one of the letters at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, the school states that its data will focus on possible race discrimination in medical school admissions. Ben Johnson, Ohio State spokesperson told that the university will respond maturely to the letter, and the university is fully compliant with all federal and state regulations and legal rulings regarding admissions.
It isn’t clear why these 3 medical schools are under scrutiny from the Trump Administration. The Department of Justice didn’t immediately return ABC News’ request for any comments.
A University of California – San Diego spokesperson told ABC News in a statement that UC San Diego was notified on Wednesday afternoon, March 25, that the Department of Justice is commencing an investigation and is reviewing the notice. The university is committed to fair process in all of our activities and programs, including admissions, consistent with state and federal anti-discrimination laws. ABC News got a follow-up from Stanford University and told them it is reviewing the letter and will also respond maturely. Stanford School of Medicine forbids unlawful discrimination based on race, color, ethnicity, or national origin, or on any characteristic protected by applicable laws.
Brian Zhang, a 1st-year M.D. student at Stanford, said he stands firmly with the Stanford Medicine admissions team, and he also wrote in an email to The Daily News. In his experience, communicating with the team before, during, and after enrollment, he can attest that they are compliant with the law in every way and don’t discriminate based on color, race, orientation, ethnic or national origin, or any other protected characteristic in their selection of students.
A separate, 5-page document informs the government of the records it is seeking. It includes standardized test scores, collected data, and admissions decisions for each applicant, going back to the incoming classes that started in 2019. The UC – San Diego stated that the university was notified on Wednesday, March 25, that the Department of Justice is starting an investigation and is reviewing the notice. The university is committed to fair processes in all of our activities and programs, including the admissions process, consistent with state and federal anti-discrimination laws.
The administration has gone full steam ahead with efforts to obtain admissions information from the universities, which raises many concerns for colleges, and is using racial proxies and other strategies to get around the Supreme Court ruling banning approvable action.
Earlier this month, a coalition of 17 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit challenging the administration’s policy that requires higher education institutions to collect information showing they aren’t considering race in admissions. A federal judge in Massachusetts is weighing the request to annul the demand. Last year, the White House accused Harvard University of allowing anti-Semitism to go unchecked on campus and of not ending Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion practices. This resulted in at least 350 grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation, and elsewhere being canceled at the Harvard Medical School, according to a faculty source who spoke to ABC News at the time of the issue.
It had taken steps such as renaming the Office for Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, and Belonging to the Office of Campus and Community Life, according to Harvard. The university is committed to making some changes to create a supportive, tolerant, and welcoming community. In February, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Harvard University, accusing the school of withholding admissions information that the government says it needs to determine whether the school is discriminating based on race.
According to statements during the confrontation in Court, representatives for Harvard didn’t immediately respond to ABC News request for comment at the time. But the unit has previously condemned the Trump administration’s actions against it as “unprecedented” and “retaliatory”, claiming the Trump administration has an illicit anti-Harvard policy. In dealings with the universities, the administration pulled funding from last year, and many included provisions requiring universities to share admissions information or change their policies to match what the federal government wanted to see.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department also joined a lawsuit indicting the David Geffen School at the University of California – Los Angeles, of reportedly using race in its school admissions process. More recently, the administration was fighting in court after 17 Democratic states sued to stop the collection of admissions data from their institutions. UCLA, they claimed that all anti-discrimination laws are in the admissions process. So, to keep in mind for the future that some people may not be able to go to medical schools like these, depending on whether they have full citizenship in the United States, if it’s a big concern for the government to see if they are or aren’t qualified to be enrolled, or it is a responsibility of the government to see if the laws are necessary, we will have to see our selves so stay tuned.
Sources: https://abcnews.com , https://apnews.com, https://thehill.com, https://stanforddaily.com
