Last Friday, the Department of Education released a "Dear Colleague" letter directing educational institutions to stop all forms of racial discrimination in essentially all aspects of their operations, including "admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life."
The letter, from Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor, mostly reiterates existing civil rights prohibitions on racial discrimination, as well as the 2023 Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard that barred race-based affirmative action in college admissions.
"If an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another person because of that person's race, the educational institution violates the law," the letter reads. "The Department will no longer tolerate the overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this Nation's educational institutions. The law is clear: treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice, or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent."
