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The UC San Diego School of Medicine is the latest California medical school to be accused of racial discrimination by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The allegations were released by the Department of Justice Monday after a four-month investigation into the school’s admission practices. The department alleges that the university discriminated against white and Asian students in favor of “lower-credentialed” Black and Hispanic students.
“The department’s investigation found that San Diego Med manipulated applicant data to achieve greater racial diversity in student admissions,” according to a statement from the DOJ.
The use of questions asking applicants to address how they overcame hardships was characterized in the statement as a ploy to determine which students were underrepresented minorities, so more could be invited to interview for a spot at the school.
The university denied that it used race-based admissions. Applicants to the school’s Doctor of Medicine program must meet strict academic thresholds that are applied equally to all applicants, the university said in a statement to The San Diego Union-Tribune.
The Justice Department said it will continue to monitor the school to ensure students of color aren’t given priority for admissions, which it says violates the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ban. If the school doesn’t comply, the U.S. government will file a lawsuit, the statement said.
The Trump administration has investigated several California medical schools for alleged race-based admissions, including those at Stanford University, UCLA and UC Davis.
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