SANTA ANA, Calif. (Diya TV) — A new lawsuit accusing the University of California of racial discrimination in undergraduate admissions claims a system that unfairly favors Black and Latino students against Asian American and white applicants.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court by a group called Students Against Racial Discrimination, alleges that UC campuses admit students with lower academic credentials at the expense of more qualified candidates. It argues that these practices violate a 1996 state law that bans race-based preferences in public education, as well as the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. UC officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The complaint argues that the university employs a “holistic” review process to circumvent legal restrictions on affirmative action, thereby making the admissions decision highly subjective. The complaint cites data from the University of California, Berkeley, where Black student admission rates have dropped from 13% in 2010 to 10% in 2023, whereas the overall admission rate has decreased from 21% to 12% over the same period.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop UC from asking about race in applications and to install a court-appointed monitor to oversee admissions decisions.
It is more than a year since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions policies nationwide, forcing the colleges to rethink diversity strategies.
