On May 6th (Wednesday), the Department of Justice in the United States announced that the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has engaged in race-based discrimination in its admissions process, favoring African-American and Latino students while putting white and Asian-American students at a disadvantage.
According to the Department of Justice, the Civil Rights Division conducted a year-long review of the admissions policies at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. It was found during the process that the leadership at UCLA intentionally made admissions decisions based on applicants’ racial backgrounds.
Documents related to the case reveal that UCLA follows a controversial narrative that suggests patients receive the best medical care when treated by doctors of the same race. Consequently, the professional qualifications of doctors were deemed of secondary importance.
A spokesperson for the David Geffen School of Medicine stated in an email response to a reporter from Dajiyuan that they are carefully reviewing the Department of Justice’s report and reaffirming that their admissions process is based on merit and involves rigorous, comprehensive evaluation of each applicant.
UCLA previously denied the allegations, stating that the collection of racial and ethnic data from applicants is only for statistical purposes and not used in the admissions process.
The Department of Justice further pointed out that their investigation revealed that on average, the academic qualifications and performance of African-American and Latino students admitted were consistently lower than those of white and Asian-American students. Their conclusion is that UCLA intentionally engaged in racial discrimination in the admissions process, violating the law.
“The admissions process at UCLA overly focuses on racial demographics at the expense of pursuing excellence and quality,” said Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Division. “Racial discrimination in admissions is not only illegal but also goes against the founding principles of the United States.”
According to a Supreme Court ruling in 2023, considering a student’s racial background in the college admissions process is considered unconstitutional.
The case was brought by Students for Fair Admissions in 2014, which separately sued Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, alleging that Harvard illegally discriminated against Asian-American applicants in the admissions process, while the University of North Carolina discriminated illegally against white and Asian-American applicants.
The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the race-based admissions policies of the two universities were unconstitutional. This landmark ruling also settled controversies surrounding affirmative action in college admissions based on race for the past 40 years in the United States.
The Department of Justice emphasized that major medical schools receive significant funding from the federal government when training the next generation of doctors. Therefore, the federal government will continue to eliminate unlawful “race politics” interference in medical school admissions.