For Immediate Release
May 23, 2016
Washington DC: On Monday May 23, 2016, in the National Press Club, leaders and representatives of more than 130 Asian American organizations announced the filing of civil rights violation complaints against Yale University, Brown University and Dartmouth College. In this complaint Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) requests that the Department of Education and the Department of Justice conduct a thorough investigation of admission practices of Yale University, Brown University and Dartmouth College and require the three colleges and other Ivy League universities to cease their discriminatory practices, including the use of racial quotas, racially-differentiated admission standards, racial stereotypes, and other unlawful admissions criteria. This represents the largest joint action ever taken by Asian American communities against Ivy League universities’ discrimination.
The link to the complaint document is:
https://asianamericanforeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Complaint_Yale_Brown_Dartmouth_Full.pdf
Historically, Asian Americans have been victimized by many race-based policies such as 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and various school segregation programs. Shockingly, many universities – including Ivy League universities even today are violating the civil rights of Asian American applicants on a continuous and systematic basis. Since 2006, Asian American students and organizations have filed administrative complaints and lawsuits against Ivy League universities. However, the U.S. government has done nothing to stop this patently unconstitutional discrimination.
In his announcement speech, Mr. YuKong Zhao, the President of AACE sent a clear message: “Today, we want to tell Ivy League schools and other colleges: Asian American communities are going to continue our fight, until you totally stop your unlawful discrimination against our children!”
Mr. Zhao has also expressed there is widespread disappointment in Asian American communities by mishandling of Asian American complaints by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), Department of Education. He said: “To rebuild the trust, AACE strongly urges that the Department of Education and Department of Justice set up oversight committees, including delegates from AACE representing the Asian-American community, to demonstrate to all the objectivity and rigor of their investigations into the complained-of discrimination by Yale, Brown and Dartmouth.”
Deeply frustrated by a lack of support by the U.S. government for Asian American equal education rights, AACE strongly urges the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a total ban on racial discrimination in college admissions in its upcoming ruling of Fisher vs. University of Texas.
Congressman Ed Royce, student representative Jian Li, and co-complainant representative Dr. Ajay Kothari also delivered supportive speeches in the news conference. AACE also presented Congressman Royce “Champion for Equal Education Rights” in recognition of his continuous support for equal education rights for all Asian Americans and all Americans. Receiving “Courage Award,” Jian Li was also recognized by AACE for his courageous act of filing the first Complaint against Ivy League schools in 2006.
MEDIA CONTACT: Yukong Zhao, yukong.zhao@outlook.com, (407)921-8452
Chunyan Li, lichunyan@yahoo.com, (973)-641-9011