Lawsuit Updates

Jason L. Riley: Is the Ivy League’s Admission Bias a ‘Trade Secret’?

Shortly after the Supreme Court’s dispiriting decision last year in Fisher v. University of Texas, which upheld the use of racial preferences in college admissions, Gallup released some encouraging poll results. More than 6 out of 10 white, black and Hispanic respondents said they disagreed with the ruling. And 7 in 10 people—including 76% of whites, 61% of Hispanics and 50% of blacks—said colleges should admit applicants based “solely on merit." Read full article... Read More

SFFA Files Lawsuit Against the Department of Education

To read the press release about the complaint, please click here. To read the complaint from Students for Fair Admissions, please click... Read More

2016 Annual Report of Students for Fair Admissions

It has been another exciting year for Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA). We have continued to vigorously litigate two landmark lawsuits against universities discriminating against our members, and we have travelled the country advocating for the equal protection of individuals regardless of race or ethnicity. As always, your membership is critical to our success. I encourage you to read our second Annual Report to our members (available here). In this report, we discuss how SFFA has advocated on your behalf, describe our plans for next year, and invite you to join us in our continuing efforts to obtain equal rights for... Read More

Annual Report of Students for Fair Admissions

June 30, 2015 As we approach the end of our first year, Students for Fair Admissions has much to celebrate. We initiated two landmark lawsuits against universities that discriminate against our members, challenged Ivy League schools’ attempts to destroy evidence of their admissions practices, and travelled the country advocating for the equal protection of students regardless of race or ethnicity. In short, we had a very successful first year. Please take a moment to read the annual report outlining our progress here. We appreciate your continued support and encourage you to ask likeminded friends to join Students for Fair Admissions and support our... Read More

WSJ: The New Jews of Harvard Admissions – Asian-Americans are rebelling over evidence that they are held to a much higher standard, but elite colleges deny using quotas.

"Here’s hoping the next stage of the affirmative-action debate in higher education finally has arrived. Last year’s Supreme Court decision upholding Michigan’s ban on racial preferences in public-university admissions included a passionate dissent by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who argued that such policies benefit “racial minorities,” by which she means blacks and Hispanics. Nowhere in Justice Sotomayor’s 58-page opinion will you find any mention of how affirmative action affects Asian-Americans, the fastest-growing racial group in the country. The omission is common among defenders of campus double standards for favored minorities, and it’s starting to annoy an increasing number of Asian-Americans. This is progress. A coalition of more than 60 Chinese, Indian, Korean and Pakistani organizations is asking the U.S. departments of Justice and Education to investigate possible racial bias in undergraduate admissions at Harvard. The complaint announced on Friday, echoing... Read More

Smash the ‘Bamboo Ceiling’ of Racial Quotas

This article was originally published in National Review on April 5, 2015 by John Fund. Read the original article here. A group of Asian-American students has filed suit against Harvard’s admissions policy, charging that it seeks to limit the number of Asian students much like quotas held down the number of Jewish students until the 1920s. For example, one of the students Harvard rejected, an unnamed child of Chinese immigrants, had perfect scores on three college-admission tests, graduated first in his (or her) class, led the tennis team, and raised money for National Public Radio. Harvard officials respond that one in six of its students have an Asian background, its admissions policy was singled out for praise in a 1978 Supreme Court decision, and it rejects thousands of impressive overachievers every year. But the group bringing the lawsuit, Students for Fair Admissions, won a powerful PR ally this week: Vijay Chokal-Ingam, an Indian American who happens to be the brother... Read More

Yale Law School deletes admissions data after numerous FERPA requests

This article was originally published in The Daily Pennsylvanian Steven Tydings on March 28, 2015 Yale Law School has deleted admissions evaluation data for enrolled students after a large uptick in FERPA requests. Stanford students found out that they could access their own admissions files, causing a major increase in FERPA requests around the country, including at Penn. With requests coming in to Yale, the Law School decided to go back to an old policy of deleting numerical scoring data, as well as the identities attached with each score, after the annual admissions cycle. “Recent FERPA requests prompted us to look at our record-keeping practices, and the decision was made to revert to our previous practice, which was to discard evaluation records after they had fulfilled their intended purpose,” Yale Law School Associate Dean Asha Rangappa said in an email in a Yale Daily News article. According to the article, Yale only honored the first few FERPA requests... Read More

Students for Fair Admissions sends letter to U.

This article was originally published in The Daily Princetonian by Jessica Li on March 25, 2015 In a letter to University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 on March 19, the president of the advocacy group Students for Fair Admissions, Edward Blum, asked the University to preserve its student admission records and to restore these documents if any part had been destroyed. The letter was in response to an article by the New Republic reporting that Yale Law School had destroyed its admission records, Blum said. University spokesperson Martin Mbugua said Eisgruber had not yet seen the letter. A letter was also sent to every Ivy League college’s president except Harvard’s, because Students for Fair Admissions is suing Harvard for allegedly discriminating against students of Asian descent in its admission process. The goal of Students for Fair Admissions is to have race become a non-factor in college admissions, according to the group’s website. “It should go... Read More

Admissions Lawsuit Plaintiff Pens Letters Blasting Record Purges

Daphne C. Thompson, writing in The Harvard Crimson, authored the following piece about a call for universities to release admissions files under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.  In response to a report that Yale Law School had decided to destroy its student admissions evaluation files, Edward Blum—the president of nonprofit membership group Students for Fair Admissions, Inc.—sent a letter Thursday to every Ivy League university president, except for Harvard’s, to object to any further deletions of student admission records. Project on Fair Representation, a legal defense group also led by Blum, is currently suing Harvard for allegedly setting admissions quotas on students of Asian descent and engaging in “racial balancing” in its admissions process. According to Blum, Harvard did not receive a similar letter regarding admissions file destruction because it is already facing litigation and must retain all records during the lawsuit’s discovery... Read More

UNC to grant students’ requests for admissions files under FERPA

Corey Risinger, writing in The Daily Tar Heel, authored the following piece about UNC's recent decisions to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act . College acceptance might no longer be a mystery to UNC students — the University is expected to join a national movement and release admissions files under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. “We are glad to comply with the law,” said Steve Farmer, vice provost for enrollment and undergraduate admissions. The student-led effort was sparked by The Fountain Hopper, an anonymous Stanford University newsletter that, in January, sent out instructions for requesting admissions files under FERPA. The 1974 law has two primary objectives — protecting students’ information from being released to third parties without permission and allowing students access to their educational files. Upon request for admissions files, universities have 45 days to respond, according to FERPA. Farmer said UNC... Read More