For Immediate Release
September 28, 2015
Short Hills, New Jersey: Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) has issued a letter （ Attached ） to Ms. Catherine Lhamon, Assistant Secretary of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), U.S. Department of Education, rejecting the conclusion in OCR’s September 9, 2015 letter to Princeton University relative to alleged discrimination against Asian American students. Asian American Coalition for Education finds OCR’s conclusion shocking, disappointing and unconvincing. This report ignores or fails to address compelling evidence of racial discrimination compiled by Daniel Golden, Thomas Espenshade, Alexandra Radford and Richard Sander. This letter provides a lengthy but inadequate qualitative analysis attempting to show that Princeton does not use race as a defining factor. Indeed, this letter fails to disprove the fact that Asian American applicants have always been held to the highest standards in both academic and non-academic areas. According to Thomas Espenshade & Alexandra Radford, on average, Asian-Americans have to score on average approximately 140 point higher than a White student, 270 points higher than a Hispanic student and 450 points higher than a Black student on the SAT in order to be admitted to America’s elite schools and Richard Sander proved there is no evidence to indicate Asian American students rank weaker in non-academic criteria. Though it says race factor alone may not always qualify students in other racial groups, this report is unable to disprove that, if given the same academic and non-academic qualifications, in majority of cases, race becomes a negative eliminating factor for Asian American applicants. In essence, OCR fails to examine whether or not Princeton University’s use of race has unduly burdened Asian American applicants, which is essential to comply with relevant Supreme Court Rulings.
We were also perplexed that OCR totally ignored Michael Wang’s May 2013’s complaint against Princeton University and prematurely gave Princeton University a green light for is questionable admission practice without completing investigations of all pending complaints.
Mr. Yukong Zhao, the leader of Asian American Coalition for Education said, “This report is a total disappointment to Asian American communities. Based on OCR’s flawed methods and unexplainable omission of an important complaint, Asian American Coalition for Education has decided to reject the conclusion of this report. We strongly request OCR office to reopen the investigation of Princeton University by including pending complaints and using vigorous and credible statistical methods.”
Organizing Committee, Asian American Coalition for Education