Washington:
The US Justice Department has accused Ohio State University's medical school of discriminating against Asian and white applicants, saying its admissions system favoured Black candidates and allowed some applicants to bypass screening or interviews.
The department's Civil Rights Division announced findings on Wednesday (local time) covering admissions to the university's College of Medicine for the incoming classes of 2023, 2024 and 2025. It said the practices violated federal civil rights law and the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling against race-based university admissions.
The announcement represents the department's investigative findings, rather than a court judgment. The department said it would seek changes through settlement negotiations where violations were found and bring lawsuits if those efforts failed.
According to the investigation, Black applicants who underwent screening and interviews were about 2.8 times as likely to be admitted as Asian applicants with equal credentials.
The department also alleged that the medical school operated a separate admissions pathway through which some candidates received admission without a screening score or without sitting for an interview.
"A university's admissions process, and all its stages, should apply equally to all applicants regardless of race," said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who heads the department's Civil Rights Division.
"The use of a separate admissions process based on race is plainly illegal under federal law, and this Department will not allow these appalling practices to continue at OSU Med or any other federally funded higher ed institution."
The department said the medical school used what it called a "Holistic Approach" to admit more applicants from underrepresented minority groups.
Under that system, screeners assessed candidates across three categories with different maximum scores: attributes, worth up to 12 points; experiences, worth up to 16 points; and metrics, worth up to eight points. The admissions process also included an interview stage.
The department's findings addressed both the treatment of applicants who completed screening and interviews and the separate pathway allowing admission without one of those steps.
The department said it would continue investigating medical schools' compliance with federal non-discrimination requirements. It identified settlement negotiations as a means of bringing admissions practices into compliance, with litigation to follow if those efforts were unsuccessful.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, colour or national origin in programmes receiving federal financial assistance. The department cited medical schools' receipt of substantial federal funding as the basis for their obligations under the law.
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