By Elena Pejic
Boston University News Service
A lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice that accuses Harvard University of refusing to provide admissions data confirming the university has stopped using affirmative action in its admissions process is raising concerns over student privacy.
The lawsuit has its origins in the 2023 Supreme Court decision Students for Fair Admissions, Inc (SFFA) v. President & Fellows of Harvard Coll. which ruled 6-3 that Harvard’s admissions program was in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause for the manner in which it considered race as a factor in admissions.
The administration opened a federal compliance review of the Ivy League institution last April, saying that Harvard has to hand over five years of admissions data for undergraduate, law, and medical programs by Apr. 25, 2025.
Now, the administration is saying they have still not received the data and that Harvard has “thwarted” efforts by the DOJ to “investigate potential discrimination.”
“Harvard has failed to disclose the data we need to ensure that its admissions are free of discrimination — we will continue fighting to put merit over DEI across America,” said U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a press release.
Harvard responded by saying it has upheld the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling on requiring colleges to stop considering race in the admissions process, with Harvard University spokesperson Jason Newton saying in a statement that the university is “committed to following the law, including civil rights laws in connection with admissions and financial aid.”
Harvard Magazine Managing Editor Jonathan Shaw added that demographic data for Harvard’s two classes admitted following the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc (SFFA) v. President & Fellows of Harvard Coll. seems to demonstrate adherence to the court’s ruling.
“One could argue that given the demographic makeup that has been revealed about the two classes that were admitted after the ruling in SFFA, that Harvard is clearly complying because the number of black students has dropped, the number of Asian students has increased, and those were expected outcomes of that particular decision,” Shaw said, noting that Harvard Magazine is an independent publication that does not speak on behalf of the Harvard administration.
According to data released by Harvard, the percentage of Black students admitted to Harvard’s Freshman class was 11.5 percent, falling from 14 percent in 2024 and 18 percent the year prior.
Shaw said the lawsuit might violate student privacy rights, including those of applicants, that are protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The act states that once students enter postsecondary education they maintain “some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information from the education records.”
“Presumably the government, if it were to win this case, would be able to see everything that a student had submitted for an application, and that might conflict with [FERPA],” Shaw said.
According to the lawsuit, the government is searching for “applicant-level” data, including race and internal ratings, among other information.
Harvard is not the only Ivy League school in legal trouble with the government, as the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed an action last November to enforce a subpoena issued back in December 2023 during an investigation of the University of Pennsylvania.
The investigation followed claims the university had engaged in “unlawful employment practices by allowing antisemitic harassment to persist and escalate” which created “a hostile work environment for Jewish faculty and staff,” according to a press release from the EEOC.
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) chapter at UPenn raised similar concerns over student privacy and safety towards Harvard’s lawsuit.
“Providing the requested information would not aid in the fight against antisemitism, and would in fact gravely endanger and violate the privacy of the very people the EEOC purports to protect,” AAUP-Penn wrote in a November statement.
