The Ministry of Justice said on Thursday that it would investigate four California universities for a potential “illegal” dei “, suggesting that schools have flouted the state law and the United States Supreme Court prohibiting the use of the race as a factor when assessing college candidates.
By announcing actions against UCLA, UC Irvine, Stanford and UC Berkeley, Atty. General Pam Bondi said that she and President Trump “dedicated to the end of illegal discrimination and the restoration of merit -based opportunities across the country.”
In addition, the Ministry of Health and Social Services said Thursday that it was investigating a “major major medical school in California to determine whether it discriminated against the basis of the race, color or national origin in its admissions”.
An HHS official told Times that the investigation was focused on the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.
The Ministry of Justice has described its investigation into the UC and Stanford campuses as a “compliance review” in a brief 248 -word press release with few details and without chronology. He has not cited proofs of illegal practices or complaints that would generally trigger the federal government to seek university practices.
He also tried to rename positive action, a term used for decades, as Dei, which means diversity, equity and inclusion. The relatively new sentence was at the center of Trump’s war against diversity practices in federal departments, university research subsidies, academic programming and societies. Trump argued that Dei’s efforts injured whites and Asians and promote individuals depending on the breed instead of merit.
“For decades, elite colleges and universities have prioritized racial quotas on equality of opportunities, dividing the Americans and discriminating whole groups of candidates, all in the name of Dei,” said the announcement of the ministry.
The spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice did not respond to requests for details on their plans.
“On Friday, the Faculty of Medicine of the UCLA received an opinion of American health and social services concerning a survey of their civil rights office, which is under exam. We will cooperate fully with their investigation,” said UCLA Health, Phil Hampton, in a statement.
Rachel Zaentz, UC spokesperson, said in a statement on Thursday that UC had ceased to use the breed in admissions when proposal 209 – which prohibits taking into account the race in public education, hiring and contracts – entered into force in 1997.
Since then, “UC has implemented admission practices to comply with the law,” said Zaentz. “At the same time, we remain determined to expand access to all qualified students. The UC undergraduate admission request collects the breed and ethnicity of students for statistical purposes.
UC presented its holistic admission process, which includes legal means to seek racially diverse candidates, such as awareness for various secondary communities.
Dee Mostofi, spokesperson for Stanford, said in a statement on Thursday that the private university had ceased to consider race in admissions after 2023, when the Supreme Court judged that the positive measure was unconstitutional.
“We continue to undertake to fulfill our obligations under the law,” said Mostofi. “We have no details on today’s announcement, but we can’t wait to know more about their concerns and answer questions from the ministry.”
Trump’s war against Dei
The surveys on admissions are the last chapter of a large push against schools and universities on the efforts of the DEI, many of which are not admissions and liberal and conservative legal experts are in the law.
The Ministry of Education has published advice in February to all schools and universities claiming that diversity programs – such as grants focused on minorities and graduation ceremonies in black and Latin – put them at the risk of losing federal subsidies.
In response, schools closed offices or diversity positions or renamed them to remove the diversity of words and equity. The USC has ended a diversity office on a campus level, merging it with a “culture” team, and the teachers rubbed the websites at the level of the diversity language department. Last week, the University of California announced that it would prohibit campuses from obliging candidates for the faculty to submit “diversity declarations” during the job request.
On Thursday, the USC also announced that it had deleted “the diversity, equity and inclusion” from its list of “unifying values”. On the same day, the University of Michigan, a pioneer in diversity programs, said that it would close its Central DEI office and declarations of diversity of the hiring, among other measures.
The Department of Education has also opened surveys on the UC Berkeley, Cal Poly Humboldt and Cal State San Bernardino and dozens of campuses this month under the allegations that they were illegally established with the doctoral project, a non-profit organization based in New Jersey which promotes the diversity of the workplace by connecting the faculties of students. The ministry accused the non -profit organization of limiting participation according to the breed. The doctoral project said this month that he had changed his policies to be opened to everyone.
Campuses have until Monday to respond to the Trump administration with details on links with the non -profit organization.
The suggestion of the Ministry of Justice according to which the universities of California violate the law in admissions signals a new level of campus control.
The decision of the Supreme Court of 2023 reversal of positive action led to decreases in Stanford and dozens of elite universities in the admissions of black and Latinos students. UC praised his registration at the campus by campus of non -white groups, which remained almost the same or who grew up. The UCLA has considerably strengthened its applications and registrations for black and Latin students after more than 25 years of targeted awareness.
Over the years, UC has gone from the use of an “academic index” based on test results and GPA for admissions to a complete review which examines 13 factors, in particular GPA, the rigor of the courses, talents and life experiences. Admission directors say that candidates are not compared to all the others in all areas, but more directly with the peers of their schools or similar socioeconomic circumstances. Most selective universities, including USC, also use a holistic review.
However, UC has faced proceedings and criticism of admissions. In February, a group called Students Against Racial Discrimination filed a complaint before a federal court which accused UC of illegally considering the race when accepting new students. The complaint allegedly alleged that the long-term growth by the system of black and Latinos inscriptions would not be possible under proposal 209 and the Decision of the Supreme Court of 2023. The lawyers representing the group include those of America First Legal, which was founded by the deputy chief of staff of Trump, Stephen Miller.
The anti -Semitism investigation strikes the Pomona College
Also on Thursday, a committee of the education congress which concentrated his anger on elite schools, he thinks that he failed to protect Jewish students sent a letter severely formulated to the Pomona College in Claremont.
The letter of the education and workforce from the United States House of Representatives required information on “several anti-Semitic incidents” following Hamas October 7, attack Israel and in the next war in Gaza.
The letter-signed by the chairman of the committee, the representative Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), And the representative Burgess Owens (Rutah), president of the sub-comity on higher education and the development of the workforce-details several incidents that have occurred on the campus of the Liberal Elite Liberal Arts.
Among the episodes, there were April 2024 demonstrations in which 20 pro-Palestinian demonstrators stormed and occupied the office of the college president, an escalation of previous disorders that led to several arrests. The graduation plans were upset a month later when pro-Palestinian activists erected tents on the main scene, which caused ceremonies to the
The letter from Walberg and Owens asked for documents related to some of the occurrences he described, and a list of all “cases of discipline / driving of students” associated with anti -Semitism since the October 7 attack. “Please identify all cases where the alleged perpetrators were involved in previous disciplinary incidents,” the members of the Congress asked.
The Pomona College admitted to having received the letter and declared in a statement that it was “firmly determined to ensure the right of all our students, including our Jewish students, to an education in Pomona, in particular to take all appropriate measures to prevent anti -Semitism” and “to fully cooperate” with the investigation.
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