Supporting Discriminated-against Asian American Students in Filing Individual Complaints
In this fall session, the U.S. Supreme Court will re-hear Fisher v. University of Texas. The holding from that case will be of critical importance, possibly eliminating race as a factor in college admissions, which has been a major source of discriminations against Asian American applicants.
In order to push the Supreme Court to reach a decision to eliminate race as a factor in college admission and in favor of racial equality, AACE is seeking Asian-American applicants who were unfairly rejected by Ivy League colleges this year to submit their individual complaint with the Department of Education. The goals of such individual complaints are to continue to put pressures on Ivy League Universities and to mobilize public opinions in support of equal opportunities for Asian-American students. More importantly, this will make the Supreme Court better understand the discriminations against Asian-American students, hear the calls of our children and hopefully put an end to the long-standing and ongoing discriminations against Asian American students by elite colleges.
Two courageous families have responded to our call and filed individual complaints with Office of Civil Rights, Department of Education against Ivy League schools for their unfair rejection of their children.
• July 20, 2015, in response to a call from AACE, an Asian-American father in New England filed complaint with OCR against Yale University, Columbia University, Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Dartmouth University, Cornell University, the University of Chicago, and Amherst College. All nine universities unfairly rejected her and she had to choose to attend college abroad. More than 16 of her non-Asian classmates with lower grades, test scores and equivalent or fewer extracurricular accomplishments were accepted into Ivy League or other top colleges.
• September 3, 2015, in response to a call from AACE, an Asian-American father in Florida filed a complaint with OCR against Harvard University. According to the father, his son is truly an outstanding student in every respect, not only did he excel academically, but he had also done a lot of community services, excelled in sports, as well as winning several national competitions in Economics and Rocketry. Yet he suspects that he was still unfairly rejected by Harvard due to his being Asian. Among his graduating class of a Floridian high school, all top four are Asian but none of them got accepted by any elite university in the U.S. At the same time, five students of other races, though were accepted by Ivy League schools, a fact that cries out for explanations as their academic qualifications were clearly not as good.
These cases underscore the severe and widespread discrimination against Asian-American applicants. They are happening across states in the U.S. and by many America’s elite universities.
In both cases, AACE sent letters to Ms. Catherine Lhamon, Assistant Secretary of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), U.S. Department of Education, to request her office launch immediate investigations and to urge relevant universities to reconsider its decision rejecting these two outstanding Asian-American applicants!
• AACE’s response to July 2015 complaint by a New England father ( Click to Read AACE’s Response)
• AACE’s response to September 2015 complaint by a Floridian father (Click to Read AACE’s Response )
Call for action to all Asian American students who have been unfairly
rejected by Ivy League Universities. You should no longer remain silent!
In this fall session, the U.S. Supreme Court will re-hear Fisher v. University of Texas. The holding from that case will be of critical importance, possibly eliminating race as a factor in college admissions, which has been a major source of discriminations against Asian American applicants.
In order to push the Supreme Court to reach a decision to eliminate race as a factor in college admission and in favor of racial equality, the Organizing Committee is seeking Asian American applicants who were unfairly rejected by Ivy League colleges this year to submit their individual complaint with the Department of Education. The purposes of such individual complaints are to continue to put pressures on Ivy League schools and to mobilize public opinions in support of the equal opportunities for Asian-American students. More importantly, this will make the Supreme Court better understand the discriminations against Asian American students, hear the calls of our children and hopefully put an end to the long-standing and ongoing discriminations against Asian American students by elite colleges.
As required by the Department of Education, any complainant shall submit a complaint within 180 days after the suspected discriminatory treatment. It will take 30 minutes to fill out the online form. Please see http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/howto.html. If you miss the 180-day deadline, you still can file with Department of Justice: http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/crt/legacy/2011/09/22/filecomp.pdf
We stand ready to provide reasonable assistance and support to eligible students. We will issue statement to Department of Education and the media in support of your individual filing. If the complaint is submitted anonymously, there shall be virtually no risks.
On July 20, 2015, one courageous Asian-American fathers filed a complaint against nine universities that unfairly rejected her daughter. Under such severe discrimination, his daughter had to choose to attend college abroad. On September 3, 2015, another Asian-American father filed a complaint against Harvard University for its unfair rejection of his son’s application. Now is the time for you to stand out and speak up. To seek justice for our children and for the future of all Asian Americans, please take a stand! Asian American communities will thank you for your courageous action.
Those who are interested in this may contact the Professor Chunyan Li of Organizing Committee: [email protected]
AACE Organizing Committee