Lawsuit accuses University of Calif. of racial discrimination in admissions

• A student group is suing the University of California, alleging racial discrimination in admissions. The place of learning also recently announced the “most diverse student body” ever in the fall of 2024.
• The lawsuit was filed Monday, Feb. 3.
• The lawsuit comes after the Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that affirmative action could not be used in higher education.

University of California officials boosted campus diversity to record levels for the current school year, which started in the fall of 2024. Now, the school system is being sued over accusations of racial discrimination in admissions.

The university group, “Students Against Racial Discrimination,” filed a lawsuit Monday, Feb. 3, that claims Asian American and white applicants are turned away, while African American and Hispanic students get unfair preference.

The group wants the school system to change its policies to comply with federal anti-discrimination laws.

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The suit comes after the Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that affirmative action could not be used in higher education. This decision reversed a decades-long effort to boost the enrollment of racial minorities at universities.

What are enrollment stats at the University of California?

According to statistics from UC’s fall undergraduate 2024 enrollment, Asian American students made up 33.1%, while white students accounted for 21%. African American students accounted for 4.8%, while Hispanic students made up 23.7%.

Since a state referendum was passed in 1996, the nine University of California schools, including UCLA and UC Berkeley, have been prohibited from considering race in admissions decisions. 

However, the student group claims that, in the years after, the UC system spent hundreds of millions of dollars to strengthen the path from high school to college for students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, leading to an increase in African American and Hispanic applicants and enrollments.

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How is UC responding?

UC told the New York Times that racial and ethnic data collected in undergraduate applications is for “statistical purposes only, and they are not used for admission.”