After an Education Dept. Investigation, a Medical School Will Stop Considering Race in Admissions

Chronicle photo by Julia Schmalz

The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center has signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education that prohibits the School of Medicine from considering race in making admissions decisions. Texas Tech is the most recent institution to stop the practice at a time of heightened scrutiny from the courts and conservative activists.

The agreement, which was first reported on Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal, was reached in February. If the medical school ever plans to go back to considering race in admissions, it must provide the Education Department with an explanation of why it intends to do so.

The deal brings a longstanding investigation to a close. The department’s Office for Civil Rights, known as OCR, started an investigation in 2005, after a complaint was filed by Roger Clegg, general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative think tank that has repeatedly opposed affirmative action.

Last year the department dismissed a complaint that Clegg had filed against Texas Tech University regarding undergraduate admissions. Since the fall of 2014, the department concluded, the university had not considered race when evaluating those applications.

The department wrote a letter to Clegg in March explaining its health-center investigation and analysis. A department official wrote that the School of Medicine “may not subject its race-conscious admissions policy to appropriate periodic review,” and that the medical school had not clearly documented or explained why race-neutral alternatives could not work.

Elizabeth Hill, a spokeswoman for the department, said in an email that the university had entered into the agreement voluntarily.

“The Supreme Court has issued clear guidance on the appropriate consideration of race in college admissions, and OCR is enforcing Title VI consistent with the court’s rulings,” she wrote.

The Texas Tech University system believed that it could prove that the medical school’s admissions practices were in compliance with the law. Eric D. Bentley, the vice chancellor, wrote to the department that the institution was willing to sign the agreement “in an effort to resolve this matter and focus on educating future health-care providers.”

The medical school will evaluate its admissions practices and explore race-neutral alternatives, Bentley wrote, and will then determine whether race should be a factor in admissions in the future. The university continues to “strive to enhance the diversity of our student body,” he said.

According to the agreement, the institution can consider race if it “provides a reasoned, principled explanation for its decision and identifies concrete and precise goals.”

The Trump administration has weighed in on other cases involving colleges’ affirmative-action policies. The Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in support of plaintiffs who accused Harvard University of discriminating against Asian-American applicants. The Justice and Education Departments are also investigating Yale University’s use of race in admissions decisions.

Art Coleman, managing partner at the consulting firm EducationCounsel, who served as deputy assistant secretary of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights during the Clinton administration, cautioned against reading too much into the Texas Tech agreement. It applies to only one institution, he said.

“I think it’s prudent — given what we know about what this administration has said and done — to raise flags on issues of racial diversity,” Coleman said. But “you’ve got to take every case on its own merits.”

Clegg celebrated the agreement, saying it showed that the Trump administration was willing to enforce the requirement established by the Supreme Court that if colleges wish to consider race in admissions, they must first examine race-neutral alternatives and frequently review whether their use of race is appropriate.

“Other schools besides Texas Tech are on notice,” Clegg said. “They are also vulnerable to an enforcement action like this.”

Nell Gluckman writes about faculty issues and other topics in higher education. You can follow her on Twitter @nellgluckman, or email her at nell.gluckman@chronicle.com.