Asian-American Coalition for Education (AACE)’s journey started in later 2014 when its founders decided to unite Asian-American communities to speak out against Ivy Leagues Universities’ discriminatory college admission practices against Asian-American children. In December 2014, they decided to unite Asian-American organizations to file a civil rights violation complaint against Harvard University. Within three months, the team drafted the complaint document, reviewed by Asian American Legal Foundation and started to reach out to Asian American communities for support in mid-Februaryy, 2015.
On May 15, 2015, the founders of AACE united 64 Chinese-American, Indian-American, Korean-American, Pakistani-American and other Asian-American organizations and jointly filed a civil rights violation complaint with the Department of Education and Department of Justice to request that they conduct an investigation into Harvard University’s discriminatory admissions practices against Asian-American applicants. The founders of AACE also successfully held a news conference at the National Press Club of Washington DC and a satellite news conference in Irvine, California. This is the largest joint action taken by Asian-American communities in few decades, and it immediately received support from three members of the U.S. Congress. Our Complaint has received unprecedented news coverage from most major media outlets in the United States, as well as in Asia, Europe, Oceania and the Middle East. This effort has also attracted the support from many parts of American society, including the bipartisan support of the U.S. House of Representatives. It has been a historic event.
For more information:
Highlights of Asian American Coalition’s Complaint against Harvard University
Timeline of Asian American Coalition’s Complaint against Harvard University
Harvard Complaint Document Submitted to OCR and DOJ
Executive Summary of the Harvard Complaint
Harvard Complaint News Reports and Editorials