President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a memorandum aimed at stopping race-based admissions policies once and for all by ordering colleges and universities that receive federal funds to provide expansive data about how they accept applicants.
The memo reads:
In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that consideration of race in higher education admissions violates students’ civil rights. However, the lack of available admissions data from universities—paired with the rampant use of ‘diversity statements’ and other overt and hidden racial proxies—continues to raise concerns about whether race is actually used in admissions decisions in practice.
“This Memorandum requires higher education institutions to submit the data necessary to verify that their admissions do not involve unlawful discrimination. It will also provide the public with a more holistic view of the factors these institutions consider in admissions,” it continues. “American students, parents, and taxpayers should have confidence that our Nation’s institutions of higher education are recruiting and training our next generations with fairness and integrity.”
The memo specifically directs Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to revamp and streamline how data from universities is collected, and to “expand the scope of required reporting for institutions’ admissions data in order to provide adequate transparency.”
The memo further instructs McMahon to “increase accuracy checks” for the data that institutions submit, and to take remedial action if colleges and universities fail to submit data in a timely manner or submit incomplete or inaccurate data.
After President Trump signed the memo, Secretary McMahon announced that she has directed the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to collect admissions data from colleges and universities. The Department of Education said institutions of higher education will now be required to report data “disaggregated by race and sex relating to their applicant pool, admitted cohort, and enrolled cohort at the undergraduate level and for specific graduate and professional programs.” The data will include information about applicants’ and admitted students academic achievements, such as standardized test scores and GPAs.
“Following the revelations of rampant racial preferencing in college admissions exposed by SFFA v. Harvard, the Trump Administration is now standardizing reporting from colleges and universities to provide full transparency into their admissions practices. It should not take years of legal proceedings, and millions of dollars in litigation fees, to elicit data from taxpayer-funded institutions that identifies whether they are discriminating against hard working American applicants,” McMahon said in a statement.
“Going forward, universities will be required to provide this data directly to us through an existing data system. We will not allow institutions to blight the dreams of students by presuming that their skin color matters more than their hard work and accomplishments” she continued. “The Trump Administration will ensure that meritocracy and excellence once again characterize American higher education.”
McMahon has also directed the NCES to develop a “rigorous audit process” to ensure accuracy and consistency in the data collection process, the Department of Education said in a press release.
The NCES collects and publishes a vast array of data from American educational institutions and oversees the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). IPEDS collects admissions, enrollment, and financial information from colleges and universities that participate in financial assistance programs, according to the department.
Colleges and universities that receive federal funding sign an agreement with the Department of Education that requires them to complete all IPEDS surveys as condition of participating in student aid programs. IPEDS surveys have only asked for the racial breakdown of enrolled students in the past. The new requirements will additionally require the racial breakdowns of applicants and admittees.
“These new requirements will enable the American public to assess whether schools are passing over the most qualified students in favor of others based on their race,” the department said.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
