The Department of Justice is allegedly investigating Harvard's admissions practices
The investigation appears to have been confirmed after a government watchdog group and a civil-rights organization submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about a possible investigation into admissions practices at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
While the letter, which was obtained by BuzzFeed, noted that there was no such record concerning UNC, it did not confirm the same for Harvard; instead only saying that the records requested were exempt from public disclosure.
The news follows similar reports in August that the DOJ would soon take up an investigation related to alleged discriminatory admissions practices at Harvard against Asian-Americans. The New York Times published a bombshell report stating the DOJ would start investigating affirmative-action practices on college campuses, and the department soon confirmed it had begun seeking volunteers to investigate the Harvard complaint.
That news rattled many in the higher-education community, who thought the issue had been quieted last year when the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of affirmative action at the University of Texas Austin (UT).
The response to the FOIA request is the clearest indication yet that the DOJ is taking aim at affirmative action at Harvard.