The administration of United States President Donald Trump has announced an investigation into hiring practices at the University of California (UC) system, the latest instance of his feud with higher education.
The Department of Justice said on Thursday that it would investigate efforts by the UC system to increase the diversity of staff, accusing the school of employing practices that “openly measure new hires by their race and sex”.
The Trump administration has previously depicted diversity initiatives as a form of discrimination.
“Public employers are bound by federal laws that prohibit racial and other employment discrimination,” Harmeet Dhillion, the head of the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.
“Institutional directives that use race- and sex-based hiring practices expose employers to legal risk under federal law.”
In a letter of notice to the University of California, the Justice Department noted that it had “reason to believe” unlawful actions occurred on some of the school’s campuses. But it added that it had not “reached any conclusions about the subject matter of the investigation”.
The University of California system is one of the most prominent public university systems in the US, with 10 campuses and more than 299,000 enrolled students.
United Arab Emirates Dirham Exchange Rate
