Livingston, New Jersey: On April 22, 2025, the Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) filed a civil rights complaint against Yale University with the Office for Civil Rights, the U.S. Department of Education (OCR), alleging that Yale University illegally uses race proxies to discriminate against Asian American applicants during the 2023-2024 admission cycle.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 rulings in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard/UNC (SFFA Rulings), which struck down race-based admissions practices, many selective colleges have significantly increased Asian enrollment. At MIT, Asian enrollment rose from 41% in the class of 2027 to 47% in the class of 2028—an increase of nearly 15%. Johns Hopkins University saw a similar trend, with Asian enrollment rising from 32% in 2023 to 46% in 2024, marking a 43% increase.
In contrast, Asian enrollment at Yale University declined, dropping from 30% in the previous year to just 24%—a decrease of approximately 20%. In response, the Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) conducted a review of Yale’s admission policy changes in 2023, specifically analyzing the university’s statement “An Update on Yale College’s Response to the Supreme Court Ruling on Race in Admissions” (September 7, 2023). Through this review, AACE identified concerns that Yale University may have unlawfully used race proxies to discriminate against Asian American applicants during the 2023–2024 admissions cycle. If confirmed, such actions would represent a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s SFFA rulings.
Encouraged by U.S. Department of Education’s “Dear Colleague Letter” of February 14, 2025, which is a concrete step in implementing the Supreme Court’s SFFA rulings, AACE filed the civil rights complaint against Yale University, requesting the OCR to investigate Yale’s admission practices. We demand Yale University to conscientiously implement the U.S. Supreme Court SFFA rulings 0f 2023, stop all racial discrimination against Asian and all other Americans.
If Yale University refuses to conscientiously implement the U.S. Supreme Court SFFA rulings of 2023, AACE requests the Federal Government suspend the federal fundings to Yale until it fully complies with the law!
As the organization that filed the 2016 civil rights violation complaint against Yale, leading to the U.S. Department of Justice’s 2020 lawsuit, AACE remains committed to ensuring compliance with the Supreme Court’s SFFA rulings.
AACE President Yukong Zhao stated, “Compelling evidence indicates that Yale University may have unlawfully employed race proxies to circumvent the Supreme Court’s SFFA rulings. Such discriminatory admission practices must be investigated and halted. AACE remains committed to monitoring compliance and ensuring that all applicable colleges adhere to the Supreme Court’s SFFA rulings with integrity.”
Link to the complaint: https://
About the AACE: www.
The Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) is a non-political, nonprofit, grassroots national alliance with more than 300 partnering organizations across the country. Since 2015, AACE has mobilized Asian communities to stand firmly behind Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA). Over the past nine years, AACE has collaborated with more than 360 Asian American organizations, organized the Boston Rally in 2018 and the “Equal Education for All” Rally in 2022, encouraged Asian American students to join SFFA’s lawsuits, and filed five amicus briefs. Beyond supporting SFFA, AACE has been a champion for equal education rights in various areas, including securing federal adoption of its policy recommendations on college admissions in July 2018, filing a federal lawsuit against Yale University in 2020, and supporting Asian Americans’ educational rights movement in multiple states, such as Maryland, New York, Washington, California, and Massachusetts. AACE is the proven leader in fighting for Asian-American children’s equal educational rights.
