Institutional members of six higher education associations, along with six private nonprofit colleges, will now have until April 24 to submit extensive applicant and admissions data broken down by race and sex to the U.S. Department of Education, a federal judge ruled Monday.
The ruling covers the following higher education groups and colleges:
- Association of American Universities, which has 69 U.S. members.
- Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts, which has 58 members.
- Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges, which has 14 members.
- Maine Independent Colleges Association, which has 11 members.
- North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, which has 36 members.
- Oregon Alliance of Independent Colleges and Universities, which has 11 members.
- Barnard College, in New York.
- Bryn Mawr College, in Pennsylvania.
- Middlebury College, in Vermont.
- Sarah Lawrence College, in New York.
- Swarthmore College, in Pennsylvania.
- Vassar College, in New York
U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor also allowed each of those groups and colleges to join a legal challenge to the Education Department’s new survey for colleges. The survey, which was announced in August, initially was due in March. The Education Department has said the data is needed to check whether colleges are complying with the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down race-conscious admissions practices.
Seventeen Democratic attorneys general have sued the Education Department over the data collection, arguing that the agency has disregarded the “onerous burden” it places on colleges and didn’t follow the proper steps when rolling it out.
Earlier this month, Saylor temporarily blocked the Education Department from enforcing data collection against public colleges in those 17 states, ruling that the agency likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
In his latest ruling, Saylor said he is extending the deadline for the six private colleges and the members of the higher ed associations while he considers whether to block the Education Department’s data collection efforts against them as well while the lawsuit plays out.
