🎓Columbia, Brown to disclose admissions race data under Trump settlement

Supreme Court ruling banned affirmative action at all colleges, forcing universities to adopt race-neutral policies while facing continued scrutiny over diversity outcomes. Settlement requiring Columbia and Brown to disclose 200,000 applicant records creates transparency mechanism that could expose continued bias in admissions decisions despite constitutional prohibition on racial preferences.

Columbia admits 67% of legacy applicants compared to 6% overall acceptance rate, while Brown accepts 33% of donor-connected candidates versus 8% general population. Public disclosure requirements could expose how wealth-based preferences replace racial considerations, maintaining exclusivity through economic rather than demographic filters that still limit access for working-class students.

Columbia and Brown benefit from federal research grants, student financial aid, and tax exemptions while maintaining secretive admissions processes that affect social mobility for entire generations. Transparency requirements create precedent for accountability measures that ensure public funding supports genuine educational access rather than elite institution reputation management and alumni donation cultivation.

Legal strategy used against Columbia and Brown includes data requests for applicant demographics, standardized test scores, and admission decision patterns that reveal institutional biases. Successful settlements create roadmap for exposing admissions practices at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and other elite institutions that shape American leadership through gatekeeping access to prestigious educational credentials and networking opportunities.