education department expands jian li complaint

An update in the case of Jian Li, the Asian American student who filed a complaint that racial bias blocked his admission to Princeton University... The complaint has been expanded by the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights into a broader "compliance review" of the issues involved beyond his case: Inquiry Into Alleged Anti-Asian Bias Expands.

The Education Department, responding to an inquiry, acknowledged the shift of the investigation from focusing on one complaint to Princeton’s entire admissions system and its treatment of Asian-American applicants. This doesn't necessarily mean that officials have come to any conclusions about the original complaint. But at the very least, the shift in the investigation suggests that the government doesn't view the complaint as frivolous.

According to Inside Higher Ed, compliance reviews cover much more ground than any single complaint, tend to take place on issues that the department believes are important, and are sometimes used to nudge other colleges to change policies when they see how one college fared in a review.

It'll probably be a while before we see any of the concrete findings from this investigation, if at all. Meanwhile, Jian Li, who filed the complaint two years ago, ended up doing okay for himself, enrolling at Yale.