Media Coverage
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Media Coverage
Press Contacts: Erik Cummins, Matt Hyams, Taina Rosa, Olivia Thomas
08.13.25
The ways in which colleges decide whom to accept in their incoming classes have recently come under increased scrutiny from the Trump administration, which has used settlements, a memo and an executive action to pressure colleges to change their admissions practices.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi provided guidance warning colleges against using geographic or institutional targeting—recruiting from a specific geographic area, institution or organization – “selected because they correlate with, replicate, or are used as substitutes for protected characteristics” such as race. The guidance adds that such practices could constitute a violation of federal antidiscrimination law.
In an interview with Inside Higher Ed, Pillsbury partner Jeffrey Metzler said that one of the biggest question marks concerning this guidance is how the government will evaluate the reason an institution chose to recruit in a specific city, neighborhood, or high school – that is, the institution’s intent.
“That same reasoning goes beyond just the geographic [component] to other race-neutral criteria like income—‘Why are you recruiting low-income students; are you doing that because your intent is to improve racial diversity because of correlations between income and race?’” he said.
He noted he anticipates there might be more trepidation about geographic recruiting going forward out of fear of being investigated by the Department of Education or the Department of Justice, “even if you as an institution know that the reason that you’re doing geographic recruiting has nothing to do with race.”
“Even if ultimately you’re confident as an institution that your reasons would satisfy the requirements of the memo, going through an investigation by [the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights] or the DOJ is a burdensome and unpleasant and nerve-racking process, and we’ve seen, particularly in this administration, investigations by OCR and DOJ can involve very, very high stakes.”
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