By Aaron Miller-
The White House has opened an investigation into Princeton University, after the president admitted racism exists at the school.
It follows a letter earlier this month by Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber to the university community in which he acknowledged that the university has and continues to be shaped by systemic racism.
The letter read: ”Racism and the damage it does to people of color nevertheless persist at Princeton as in our society, sometimes by conscious intention but more often through unexamined assumptions and stereotypes, ignorance or insensitivity, and the systemic legacy of past decisions and policies,”
He admitted that for most of Princeton’s history, the university “intentionally and systematically excluded people of colour, women, Jews, and other minorities.”
“Racist assumptions from the past also remain embedded in structures of the University itself,” he added, noting that, for example, Princeton has at least nine departments and programs organized around European languages and culture, but only a single, relatively small program in African studies.
The admission forced The White House to immediately spark the investigation.
“You admitted Princeton’s educational program is and for decades has been racist,” Robert King, assistant secretary of the Education Department’s Office of Postsecondary Education, wrote in a letter to university officials earlier this week. “The serious, even shocking nature of Princeton’s admissions compel the Department to move with all appropriate speed.”
The letter wasn’t the first time Eisgruber addressed systemic racism in the wake of nationwide protests over racial justice. In June, the Board of Trustees voted to remove Woodrow Wilson’s name from the School of Public and International Affairs, which Eisgruber described as a “landmark moment in Princeton’s history.”
The letter instead served to update students on the steps Eisgruber had tasked the university administration to take to address systemic racism, including new funding for teaching, research and service projects related to racial justice.
It included exploring the possibility of a new degree program for students from disadvantaged communities that are disproportionately impacted by systematic racism, diversifying the faculty, including by increasing by 50%,
The number of tenured faculty from underrepresented groups, and reviewing university benefits and policies with an eye for enhancing equity for employees in lower-paid positions, among many other things.
The Department of Education used those examples to bolster its charge against the university, arguing the steps outlined in Eisgruber’s letter amount to an admission by the university that it was excluding people based on race – and perhaps has been for decades – in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
“Based on its admitted racism, the U.S. Department of Education is concerned Princeton’s non-discrimination and equal opportunity assurances in its Program Participation Agreements from at least 2013 to the present may have been false,” King wrote.
“The Department is further concerned Princeton perhaps knew, or should have known, these assurances were false at the time they were made. Finally, the Department is further concerned Princeton’s many non-discrimination and equal opportunity claims to students, parents, and consumers in the market for education certificates may have been false, misleading, and actionable substantial misrepresentations.”
Princeton reacted to the accusations in a statement. The university said: “vigilant in its pursuit of equity,” while also continuing to stand by Eisgruber’s assertion about the prevalence of systemic racism on and off campus.
“It is unfortunate that the department appears to believe that grappling honestly with the nation’s history and the current effects of systemic racism runs afoul of existing law,” the university said.
The investigation into Princeton is just the latest pursuit of an elite, Ivy League school by the Trump administration, which has also pursued Harvard and Yale over issues of race.