For Immediate Release
July 24, 2015
Short Hills, New Jersey: Asian American Coalition has issued a letter ( Attached )to Ms. Catherine Lhamon, Assistant Secretary, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education to request her office to launch immediate investigation into a complaint recently filed by an Asian American father whose daughter was unfairly rejected by all nine American universities she applied and had to choose attending college abroad. The complainant’s daughter obtained near-perfect grades and test scores and demonstrated tremendous regional and national-level accomplishment in a number of extracurricular activities, and yet did not get accepted into any of the nine colleges. More than 16 classmates with lower grades, test scores and equivalent or inferior extracurricular accomplishments were accepted into Ivy League or other top colleges. All of them were not Asian.
We feel outraged by such severe discriminations against this outstanding Asian-American applicant. It is un-American for so many universities to deny her enrollment while selecting less qualified applicants simply because she was born with the “wrong race!” Her case clearly illustrates that the discriminatory admissions practices are widespread, happening not just at Ivy League colleges but at many other top colleges. We strongly request the Department of Education to review this complaint with full and fair consideration consistent with applicable law, rules and regulations, and request Department of Education to take immediate actions to protect her, an Asian-American against any infringements on her constitutional rights of equal protection under the law, including urge relevant universities to correct their decisions.
In the absence of any meaningful enforcement actions taken by the U.S, Government, Ivy League universities and other American universities are still violating the civil rights of Asian-American applicants on a continuous and systematic basis. It is the time for Department of Education to take action now!
Organizing Committee, Asian American Coalition for Education