Education Department launches civil rights investigation into Duke

July 29 (UPI) — The Department of Education has launched a civil rights investigation into Duke University amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on higher-learning institutions as it seeks to rid the private and public sector of diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

The civil rights investigation was launched Monday into not only Duke but its law journal for violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by allegedly discriminating against students based on race.

The investigation coincides with the departments of Education and Health and Human Services sending a joint letter to Duke University outlining their “shared concerns” about its use of race in its hiring, admissions and scholarship decisions.

“If Duke illegally gives preferential treatment to law journal or medical school applicants based on those students’ immutable characteristics, that is an affront not only to civil rights law, but to the meritocratic character of academic excellence,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.

“Blatantly discriminatory practices that are illegal under the Constitution, anti-discrimination law and Supreme Court precedent have become all too common in our education institutions. The Trump administration will not allow them to continue.”

Diversity, equity and inclusion, known as DEI, is a conceptual framework that promotes fair treatment and full participation of all people. It has been a target of conservatives who claim it focuses on race and gender at the expense of merit.

Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump has sought to remove DEI from the federal government and has threatened to revoke federal funding from several universities, including Harvard, over their alleged DEI programs.

Dozens of schools have been the target of Trump administration civil rights investigations over DEI policies and practices. It has also launched investigations into schools over allowing transgender students to compete in women’s sporting competitions, for not protecting Jewish students amid pro-Palestine protests and for providing migrants with scholarship opportunities denied to out-of-state Americans.

Several of the schools have reached multimillion-dollar settlements with the Trump administration to resolve the civil rights investigations, including Columbia, which, earlier this month, agreed to pay $200 million to the federal government and end its DEI policies.

The investigation launched Monday accuses Duke’s law review of awarding extra points in its editor application process to personal statements that explain how the applicant’s membership in an underrepresented group promotes diverse voices.

In the joint letter from the Department of Education and HHS, they accuse Duke University School of Medicine of employing practices that “include illegal and wrongful racial preferences and discriminatory activity in recruitment, student admissions, scholarships and financial aid, mentoring and enrichment programs, hiring, promotion and more.”

No specifics were given.

“The immediate request is simple: Review all policies and practices at Duke Health for the illegal use of race preferences, take immediate action to reform all of those that unlawfully take account of race or ethnicity to bestow benefits or advantages and provide clear and verifiable assurances to the government that Duke’s new policies will be implemented faithfully going forward,” the letter said.

The departments called on the school to form a committee to carry out the Trump administration’s request over a six-month period. Duke has 10 days to respond, it said.

The departments said federal funding to the school was at risk.