Duke is one of 45 higher education institutions under federal investigation for allegedly engaging in “race-exclusionary practices” in their graduate programs, the Department of Education announced Friday.
The colleges and universities are being investigated for possibly violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by partnering with the Ph.D. Project, an organization that seeks to help students from underrepresented backgrounds obtain business degrees. In a Friday statement, the Education Department claimed that the program “limits eligibility based on the race of participants.”
An additional seven institutions are under investigation on similar grounds — six for “allegedly awarding impermissible race-based scholarships” and one for “allegedly administering a program that segregates students on the basis of race.
“The department is working to reorient civil rights enforcement to ensure all students are protected from illegal discrimination,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in the statement. “… Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin. We will not yield on this commitment.”
The move came exactly one month after the Trump administration issued a “Dear Colleague” letter to U.S. schools, giving them a two-week deadline to terminate all diversity initiatives and stop using “racial preferences” in admissions, hiring, financial aid allocation and other practices or risk losing federal funding.
University administrators declined to comment on the investigation, its response to the Feb. 14 Dear Colleague letter or the future of diversity initiatives at Duke.
Duke was challenged last fall for possible race-based discrimination after announcing the demographic breakdown for the Class of 2028, which revealed a six-percentage-point decrease in enrolled Asian students compared to the previous year. Students for Fair Admissions, the advocacy group that served as the plaintiff in the lawsuit resulting in the overturning of affirmative action in college admissions, sent a notice to the University in September alleging that Duke’s “racial numbers [were] not possible under true race neutrality” and warning that it was “prepared to enforce” the June 2023 Supreme Court ruling “through litigation.”
The University previously terminated its Reginaldo Howard Memorial Scholarship Program, a full-ride scholarship for “top applicants of African descent,” and replaced it with a leadership program open to all undergraduates, regardless of race. The April 2024 move came less than a year after the affirmative action ruling, though University administration maintained that the ruling was not a factor in the decision to end the program.
The investigations announced Friday constitute the second major set of federal investigations into U.S. colleges and universities initiated by the Trump administration. On Monday, the Education Department sent letters to 60 schools informing them that they were under investigation for alleged “antisemitic discrimination and harassment” and could face “enforcement actions.” Duke was not listed as under investigation.
Both sets of investigations were announced after McMahon was confirmed to her position as head of the department March 3.
The Department of Education has faced questions about its future in recent months, as President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated his intention to dismantle the department or eliminate it altogether.
In the first apparent step toward that goal, over 1,300 department employees were fired Tuesday — nearly half its total workforce. Particularly affected was the Office of Civil Rights, which is responsible for handling federal investigations into schools and was reportedly “already understaffed.”
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Zoe Kolenovsky is a Trinity junior and news editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.