President Trump orders colleges to hand over more race-related admissions data
The Trump administration says it is expanding the scope of required data reporting for universities in an effort to prevent race-based admissions, which the Supreme Court already outlawed.
President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Aug. 7 to expand requirements for colleges to report their admissions data and prove they're not unlawfully considering race.
The memo directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to revamp higher education data collection, broaden the scope of reporting requirements from the federal government and double down on punishments for schools that submit erroneous information.
The White House said the move will make the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or IPEDS – the main national repository for information on colleges and universities – more easily accessible and digestible for students and families.
While McMahon will have 120 days to expand schools' reporting requirements, the timeline for implementing the IPEDS improvements is less clear. The National Center for Education Statistics, which is in charge of conducting surveys for IPEDs every year, was reduced to just a handful of employees after the Education Department's mass layoffs in March. The agency also fired many staffers who oversaw contracts with outside vendors.
The White House said the action will ensure that colleges submit the data required to verify they aren't engaging in race-based admissions in the wake of a 2023 Supreme Court ruling outlawing the practice.
Over the past six months, critics have suggested the Trump administration has exaggerated that decision as part of a broader campaign to end diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs on school campuses.
“There is an effort to rhetorically overstate the holding,” Jonathan Feingold, a legal scholar at Boston University, told Paste BN in March, "so that institutions are overcomplying.”
Angel Pérez, the CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said the memo was intentionally vague. In his view, the government appears to be asking universities to justify why they choose to recruit in different regions of the country and world – a practice that he stressed is legal.
"It seems to me like this administration wants to punish any institution that does not admit a majority of white students to their campus," he said.
The White House said the effort will ultimately provide the public with a better understanding of the factors schools consider in the admissions process.
Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for Paste BN. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.
Joey Garrison is a White House correspondent for Paste BN. Reach him on X at @joeygarrison.