Harvard denies admissions bias in suit by Asian-Americans
Harvard, the wealthiest US university, has asked the judge throw out the case before trial, arguing that admissions data and pretrial witness testimony do not support the plaintiff’s claims
Harvard University assailed a group claiming the school intentionally discriminates against Asian-American applicants, saying in a court filing that the organisation offered a “misleading narrative” based on “cherry-picked” documents.
Students for Fair Admissions, which is suing the Ivy League school, claims Harvard ignored statistical evidence from its own researchers showing bias in admissions. The group asked a judge to decide the case in its favour before a trial scheduled for October in Boston, based on court filings.
Harvard on Friday responded aggressively, calling the written request “a 45-page press release”.
“The evidence fails to show – let alone beyond dispute – that Harvard intentionally discriminates against Asian-American applicants,” the school said.
Students for Fair Admissions, which sued in 2014, last month told the judge that it has “incontrovertible” evidence that the university has “engineered the admissions process to achieve” illegal goals.
The organisation says Asian-Americans are subject to the same kind of quotas that kept many Jews out of Ivy League colleges in the first half of the 20th century – and the Trump administration has indicated it’s sympathetic to their argument.