UCLA med school accused of discriminating against white, Asian applicants

A federal lawsuit filed against UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine claims that the institution continues to consider race in its admissions process, illegally discriminating against white and Asian applicants and violating the Supreme Court’s 2023 ban on affirmative action in higher education.

The class action suit, which was filed on May 8 and first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, was brought by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) — the nonprofit that successfully challenged Harvard’s affirmative action program — along with Do No Harm and Kelly Mahoney, a white woman applicant who scored in the 96th percentile on the MCAT but was rejected. The complaint alleges that under Associate Dean for Admissions Jennifer Lucero — who became dean in 2020 — the school uses “holistic” review processes to determine applicants’ race through essays and interviews, then uses that information to make admission decisions.

Citing multiple whistleblowers, the suit claims that Lucero “berates and belittles committee members who raise concerns about admitting minority students because of their race despite low GPAs and MCAT scores.” In one alleged 2021 meeting, Lucero allegedly said that the candidate’s scores should not matter “because we need people like this in the medical school,” referencing high mortality rates among African American women as justification for prioritizing Black applicants.

The suit argues its case with numbers. While white and Asian students typically comprised around 73% of the medical school’s applicants between 2020 and 2023, their percentage among matriculants dropped from 65.7% in 2020 to 53.7% in 2023, as per the complaint. Black students made up 14.29% of matriculants in 2023 despite being only 7.86% of applicants, while Asian applicants constituted 40.79% of the pool but only 29.71% of matriculants.

The legal challenge represents the latest test of the Supreme Court’s 2023 SFFA v. Harvard decision, which ruled race-based admissions unconstitutional. It also comes amid broader scrutiny of UCLA by the Trump administration: the Department of Health and Human Services launched an investigation into its medical school in March for potential race-based discrimination, while the Department of Justice announced that it would examine UCLA and other UC campuses for “illegal DEI policies.” Additionally, UCLA is one of 60 universities under Department of Education investigation for anti-Semitic harassment following campus protests.