Sat Mar 15 18:10:00 UTC 2025: ## Education Department Launches Wide-Ranging Investigations into 52 Universities Over Alleged Racial Preferences

**Washington, D.C.** – The U.S. Department of Education has launched investigations into 52 universities across 41 states, alleging violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act through the use of race-based preferences in education programs. The investigations, announced Friday, target institutions for allegedly engaging in race-exclusionary practices, primarily through partnerships with The PhD Project, a non-profit that supports underrepresented minority students in pursuing doctoral degrees in business.

The Department claims that 45 universities, mainly through their graduate programs, violated civil rights laws by partnering with The PhD Project, which focuses on Black, Latino, and Native American students. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated that students should be assessed on merit, not race. The PhD Project responded by stating they aim to broaden the pipeline of business leaders and have opened their application process.

The probe includes prestigious institutions like Cornell, Yale, Duke, Emory, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Rice, MIT, and NYU, along with numerous state schools and other private universities. Separately, seven other universities are under investigation for alleged impermissible race-based scholarships or race-based student segregation.

The investigations have sparked outrage among higher education leaders. Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, criticized the Department’s actions as governmental overreach, conflating inclusive learning environments with civil rights violations. She described a sense of “moral distress” among university administrators.

These actions follow a recent Department of Education letter warning institutions against race-based preferences in admissions, financial aid, and hiring, and have prompted lawsuits from major teacher unions. The investigations are seen as part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to curb diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. The Department is also conducting separate investigations into 60 universities over allegations of antisemitic discrimination, with some overlap between the two sets of inquiries.

The investigations coincide with significant staff cuts within the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, raising concerns about the capacity to handle the increased workload. Higher education leaders are actively lobbying Congress to address what they perceive as threats to academic freedom and institutional autonomy.

Read More