Texas Tech Med School Makes Deal With Trump Administration

A would-be student never applied to Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine, but filed a complaint in 2004 over its use of affirmative action, alleging it violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, reports CNN. Fifteen years later, a Department of Education investigation that began in 2005 has concluded with an agreement signed with the school in February. It states that "as part of the holistic admissions process," Texas Tech will not factor in race or national origin. The Wall Street Journal reports that the DOE in the agreement proposed other methods of increasing diversity, such as concentrating recruitment efforts on low-income areas or giving preference to first-generation college students.

Several Supreme Court rulings have upheld schools' rights to use affirmative action but those rulings allow for legal challenges, as in a 2016 decision that stipulated schools using affirmative action regularly assess the positive and negative impact of their policy. The Journal's take: The agreement "signals the administration’s desire to limit the extent to which universities can factor race into admissions" and puts "other institutions of higher education on notice that their continued use of affirmative action policies will draw federal scrutiny." The AP reports the complaint was filed by Center for Equal Opportunity President Roger Clegg. The conservative think tank opposes affirmative action. (More affirmative action stories.)