A new federal investigation into Harvard University could upend the practice of legacy admissions, where colleges give a boost to undergraduate applicants who are related to wealthy donors and alumni. So what’s next?
The U.S. Education Department confirmed this week that its Office for Civil Rights has launched an investigation into whether Harvard discriminates on the basis of race by giving legacy applicants, who are predominantly white, a leg up in admissions decisions.
What are the stakes?
Depending on the outcome of the investigation, the government could order Harvard to cease such practices or lose access to federal money. But such determinations are “exceptionally rare,” said Art Coleman, managing partner at EducationCounsel LLC and a former deputy assistant secretary in the Education Department’s civil-rights office, known as OCR.
“Most cases either lack merit and OCR will determine that early on and dismiss or, if it determines there’s merit, the vast majority of those cases end up in a resolution agreement where OCR and the institution agree on certain steps the institution must take,” he said.
If OCR determined that Harvard’s legacy practices violated federal law, wouldn’t other institutions feel pressure to scrap them as well, as a handful of colleges have already done? It’s possible, Coleman said.
But it’s way too early to tell. “All OCR has done is what it’s legally compelled to do, which is open a case,” with no hint of whether it has merit, he said.
Besides, OCR complaints can take months or even years to play out, as The Chronicle found in years of tracking hundreds of Title IX complaints.
Howard Kallem, who formerly worked as an attorney in the Office for Civil Rights’ Washington, D.C., regional office, said that while resolution agreements in these cases aren’t intended to set precedents, any determination that Harvard’s policies violate federal law “would receive a lot of publicity, and other schools would be well advised to take a good hard look at their admissions procedures.” Although the case is being handled by OCR’s Boston office, officials at the headquarters will weigh in and it’s possible the Biden administration would want the issue resolved before the presidential election, Kallem said. Or possibly not, if the case proves too controversial.
What does the complaint allege?
The complaint against Harvard was filed this month just days after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the use of race in admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, effectively ending race-conscious policies nationwide. It was filed by Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston-based nonprofit, on behalf of Black and Latino community groups in New England.
The group contends that nearly 70 percent of applicants who are accepted to Harvard on the basis of their connections with donors or alumni are white, and that this creates an “unfair barrier” to minority applicants who are competing for admission. The complaint says that between 2014 and 2019, donor-related applicants were nearly seven times more likely to be admitted than non-donor-related applicants, and legacies nearly six times more likely. It urges the Education Department to declare those practices illegal.
“The need for the Department of Education to put a stop to this discriminatory practice is particularly acute now that the Supreme Court has severely limited the use of race as a factor in higher education admissions processes, which is expected to have a negative impact on campus diversity,” the complaint states.
In a statement to The Chronicle, a Harvard spokesperson, Nicole Rura, said the university is reviewing its admissions policies and “remains dedicated to opening doors to opportunity and to redoubling our efforts to encourage students from many different backgrounds to apply for admission.”
What do we know about the investigation?
In a letter dated Monday, OCR’s regional director in Boston, Ramzi Ajami, wrote that the federal office was investigating whether Harvard “discriminates on the basis of race by using donor and legacy preferences in its undergraduate admissions process in violation of Title VI and its implementing regulations.” Title VI prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives federal financial assistance from the Education Department.
The letter, which was released by Lawyers for Civil Rights, went on to state that opening the investigation “in no way implies that OCR has made a determination on the merits of the complaint. During the investigation, OCR is a neutral fact-finder, collecting and analyzing relevant evidence from the complainant, the university, and other sources, as appropriate.”
When OCR receives a complaint, its lawyers and investigators evaluate it to determine whether the office has jurisdiction to open an investigation, whether it has enough information to do so, and whether the complaint was filed within 180 days of the alleged discrimination.
A discrimination complaint can be filed by anyone who believes that an education institution that receives federal financial assistance has discriminated against someone on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age. The complainant doesn’t have to be the victim of discrimination, but can complain on behalf of someone else.
One retired professor has kept OCR particularly busy with nearly 850 complaints over the past seven years. Questions about what constitutes discriminatory behavior in higher education are no doubt fresh in the minds of investigators there.