Trump signed a memorandum asking universities to disclose racial admission data

US President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Thursday (August 7), requiring universities to collect enrollment data to prove that student groups have not been classified by race. However, the largest higher education policy and lobbying organization in the United States pointed out that the wording of the memorandum was ambiguous. The U.S. Council on Education said that the White House's demand for schools to collect racial data might be illegal.

Reuters reported that this is the latest move by the Trump administration in an attempt to abolish the college affirmative action policy. The Trump administration has launched dozens of investigations and threatened to cut off funding for universities that promote diversity, equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs.

According to the memo, a 2023 ruling by the US Supreme Court overturned the practice of using affirmative action in college admissions, but universities circumvented the ruling by having students provide "diversity statements" indicating their race when applying. The White House now demands that universities prove they comply with government regulations.

The US Department of Education issued a statement saying that Education Secretary McMahon has instructed the National Center for Education Statistics to collect racial and gender data of applicants, admitted students, and all undergraduate students from universities.

Van Smith, senior vice president of the American Council on Education representing 1,600 member schools, said that according to the Supreme Court's ruling to terminate affirmative action, collecting such data is illegal.

Van Smith said, "You can't take race into account when admitting students, so schools don't collect racial data from applicants." He said, "This seems to be an attempt to get schools to provide information that we don't have and can't collect."

In 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on the admission policies of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, overturning the use of affirmative action in university admissions and holding that it violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution. This landmark ruling, which ends the practice of universities taking race into account in admissions, has a significant impact on the racial diversity policy in American higher education.