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The University of California San Diego School of Medicine illegally used race in its admissions process to favor black and Hispanic applicants over more qualified white and Asian candidates, the Justice Department announced Monday.
The med school continued affirmative action in violation of civil rights laws and even after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which banned race discrimination in higher education.
The feds argued the med school uses “hardship” criteria to skirt the laws.
“To racially diversify its classes, San Diego Med created an evaluation process that uses ‘hardship’ as a racial proxy, specifically to achieve its diversity agenda,” according to an eight-page findings memo it sent to the school.
The memo stated:
The Department finds that San Diego Med discriminated against white and Asian applicants to benefit black and Hispanic applicants. This is evident from the data analysis and confirmed through the information provided by San Diego Med and publicly available data. The school intended to tinker with the racial representation of its incoming classes, even after SFF A was decided. The data shows a significant disparity in objective academic metrics between black and Hispanic applicants compared with applicants from other races. San Diego Med’ s internal documents, including communications among the admissions staff, confirm that San Diego Med intended to racially discriminate in favor of so-called underrepresented minorities, such as blacks and Hispanics. As a result of these practices, more qualified white and Asian students were denied admission to San Diego Med on the basis of their race.
A UC San Diego spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times the university is reviewing the findings.
The medical school “is proud to produce some of the highest-performing physicians and researchers in the nation,” the spokesperson said, adding all applicants “must meet strict academic thresholds, a requirement that is and was applied uniformly to all applicants.”
The university “remains committed to full compliance with federal law” and “welcomes the opportunity to work collaboratively and constructively with the federal government to affirm that commitment.”
The Hill reported that the department seeks a voluntary settlement with the university to correct its admissions practices or the department will file a lawsuit.
