The Department of Education has informed Princeton University that it is under investigation following the school president's declaration that racism was "embedded" in the institution.
President Christopher Eisgruber published an open letter earlier this month claiming that "racism and the damage it does to people of color persist at Princeton" and that "racist assumptions" are "embedded in structures of the University itself." This appears to be an attempt to virtue signal themselves into a higher status of politically-correct social ‘morality.’ It also appears to have backfired.
According to a letter the Department of Education sent to Princeton that was obtained by the Washington Examiner, such an admission from Eisgruber raises concerns that Princeton has been receiving tens of millions of dollars of federal funds in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which declares that "no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."
Eisgruber's cringy letter branding the 274-year-old university racist came after a summer of unrest rife with race riots and an open letter from hundreds of Princeton faculty members who wrote, "Anti-Black racism has a visible bearing upon Princeton’s campus makeup." The admission was followed by dozens of "anti-racist" policy change demands. Among them were calls for select faculty race quotas and to "reconsider" the use of standardized testing for admissions.
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Now, the Education Department has sent a formal records request as it pursues its investigation. Its main point of contention is whether Princeton has lied to the public with its marketing and to the department in its promise not to uphold racist standards, in accordance with receiving federal funds. Here is an excerpt of the DOE letter.
"Based on its admitted racism, the U.S. Department of Education (“Department”) is concerned Princeton’s nondiscrimination and equal opportunity assurances in its Program Participation Agreements from at least 2013 to the present may have been false," the letter reads. "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 nondiscrimination and equal opportunity claims to students, parents, and consumers in the market for education certificates may have been false, misleading, and actionable substantial misrepresentations in violation of 20 U.S.C. § 1094(c)(3)(B) and 34 CFR 668.71(c). Therefore, the Department’s Office of Postsecondary Education, in consultation with the Department’s Office of the General Counsel, is opening this investigation."
Multiple people familiar with the matter have confirmed the letter's validity and assert that this investigation is not political. Instead, they assert that the department has a legal obligation to investigate a supposedly self-admitted violation of federal civil rights protections.
The Education Department regularly investigates universities for violating Title IX of the Civil Rights Act in its handling of campus sexual assault and misconduct allegations. This investigation, while not identical, could prove similar. The Department of Education is essentially calling Princeton’s bluff in this matter, potentially exposing their effort to harvest virtue signalling points.
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After Princeton received the letter from the U.S. Department of Education, facing a potential loss of federal funding for their acknowledged racism, they went into damage control mode. On September 17, they released another statement arguing that they are not racist. Make up your minds, please!
An excerpt from Princeton University’s statement,
Princeton has long been committed to creating and maintaining a community where all can thrive, and stands by its representations to the Department and the public that it complies with all laws and regulations governing equal opportunity, non-discrimination and harassment. This work is core to the University’s teaching and research mission, and we are vigilant in our pursuit of equity in every aspect of our programs and operations.
Our Observation
The DoE apparently doesn’t understand that systemic racism accusations are typically an elite institutional tool to both convict and remove yourself from guilt. They instead took Eisgruber and Princeton at their word.
Much of Princeton remains caught up in the abject moral panic over systemic anti-black racism that is plaguing our society, sending well-intentioned SJW progressives turning over every ivy-covered stone in the fervent hopes of uncovering racists and other latter-day-witches for prompt and public identification, “education,” or cancellation. President Eisgruber capitulated to the groundless demands of a deluded segment of his constituency and of our society.
Modern-day, third-wave antiracism is nothing short of a fideistic religious movement born of the tortured conscience of social justice and the self flagellations of a pseudo-modern woke Martin Luther. It is an ideological conviction that problematic racists and racist structures and disparities are sustained in all corners of society, including elite academe.
But Betsy DeVos’ DoE has taken Princeton’s admission of racist guilt on its own terms, so by the very logic of its self-indictment Princeton could now face legal consequences. On this front, we absolutely concur with the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal: “It will be fascinating to watch how Princeton squares its admission of systemic racism with its vow that it doesn’t discriminate.”
Faced with such remarkable declarations and bureaucratic motions from the head of one of the nation’s most prestigious institutions, the DoE had no choice but to act on the investigative trolling opportunity of a lifetime. Institutional racism, even as it becomes something expected of people in positions of power to confess with ritual solemnity, remains the crime it has been for the past half-century, and now the federal government will go searching for evidence of that crime at Princeton. The lesson? There is a price to be paid when leaders lie.
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“For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:3).
