An aerial view of the Stanford University campus. The Trump administration is demanding that the medical schools at Stanford, UC San Diego and Ohio State provide detailed admissions data within the month or risk a loss of federal funding.
Steve Proehl/Getty Images/Corbis Unreleased
The Trump administration is demanding that three medical schools — Stanford, UC San Diego and Ohio State — provide detailed admissions data within the month or risk a loss of federal funding, the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed Thursday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced the probes on social media Wednesday. “Launching a series of civil rights investigations. Another day in paradise!” she declared.
UC San Diego and Stanford School of Medicine officials also confirmed that the Department of Justice notified them of the investigation on Wednesday and that they were reviewing the letters.
Article continues below this ad
“UC San Diego is committed to fair processes in all of our programs and activities, including admissions, consistent with federal and state anti-discrimination laws,” the university said in a statement.
Stanford’s medical school said it “prohibits unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.”
San Francisco Chronicle Logo
Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.
Add Preferred Source
Neither university shared the letter.
The federal demands come two weeks after California and 16 other states sued the Trump administration over a new requirement this year that universities report not only the race and gender of every student who is admitted or even applies, but also their test scores, GPA and financial aid status. Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, has called the federal order a “fishing expedition.”
Article continues below this ad
The detailed data — a requirement announced Aug. 7 by U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon — seems minimal compared to what the Trump administration is now demanding from the three medical schools.
The New York Times, which broke the story and said it viewed the Justice Department’s letters to the universities, reported that federal officials want to see seven years of data about applicants to all three medical schools, including their test scores and ZIP codes.
The government is also demanding to learn not only what family relationships exist between applicants and alumni or donors to the schools, but also to see internal messages related to diversity efforts, and correspondence between the universities and drug companies related to admissions policies, the Times reported, noting that Trump gave a deadline of April 24, and the penalty for noncompliance could be a loss of federal funding.
“At this time, our investigation will focus on possible race discrimination in medical school admissions,” Dhillon reportedly wrote in the letters.
“Race discrimination” under the Trump administration is defined differently from the way administrations have done for generations and generally refers to a perception that white people are at a disadvantage.
Article continues below this ad
Consequently, the Trump administration has rolled back decades of diversity programs across the country and made it increasingly difficult to receive federal funding for research into social and medical issues related to Black, Latino and other underrepresented minorities.
The new federal demands also come as a conservative group called Students Against Racial Preferences sued the University of California in February, accusing it of making admissions decisions that benefit Black and Latino applicants over white and Asian American applicants. California has banned affirmative action in public employment, education and contracting since 1996, under Proposition 209.
Trump’s demands also cap more than a year of pressure from his administration on research universities, in which it has become increasingly difficult for scientists to rely on grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health to fund their work.
Medical centers are particularly affected, and on Thursday, a UC-sponsored bill, SB895 by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-S.F., advanced through the Senate Health committee.
Article continues below this ad
The bill would place a $23 billion bond measure on the November ballot intended to create a “California Foundation for Science and Health Research,” aimed at counteracting efforts such as this week’s threat by the Justice Department to withhold medical center funding in the state.