The US Justice Department has launched a civil-rights probe of the University of California system, accusing its hiring practices of illegally considering applicants’ race and sex. In a notice issued Thursday, the department’s Civil Rights Division stated it has “reason to believe” UC campuses are violating federal anti-discrimination statutes, though it emphasized no findings have been made.
Public employers can’t use race- or sex-based factors in hiring decisions,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. “Such policies place institutions at risk of costly and embarrassing lawsuits.”
UC spokesmen justified the 10-campus system’s practices, claiming that all hiring is consistent with federal and state law and creates “an environment where everyone is welcomed and supported.” The system enrolls some 300,000 students and employs tens of thousands of teachers and staff.
The request is the latest confrontation between President Donald Trump and US colleges in his second term in office. The government has already canceled federal contracts at Harvard, Columbia and other top-tier universities, claiming that they were not strong enough in addressing protests on campuses against Israel’s war in Gaza and were tolerant of antisemitic harassment. Harvard sued to recover lost funds and preserve its tax-exempt status, denying federal requests for an outside examination of “viewpoint diversity.
Since his return to the White House, Trump has framed campus DEI programs as discriminatory. On his first day back in office he signed an executive order eliminating DEI programs across the federal workforce as “immense public waste and shameful discrimination.” Critics argue his crackdown violates academic freedom and targets political rivals, pointing to efforts to deport foreign students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt restated the administration’s position Thursday. “The president is restoring a merit-based culture where hiring and promotion are not determined by skin tone or gender,” she said, refusing to comment on specifics of the UC investigation.