Columbia University says race ‘neutral’ policies ‘constitutes discrimination’

Campus policies that are “neutral” and do not consider race are considered “discriminatory,” Columbia University’s updated discrimination guide states.

The university updated its “Anti-Discrimination and Discriminatory Harassment Policy and Procedures for Students” on Monday, writing that policies that are “neutral” and have “a disproportionate and unjustified adverse impact” on “protected” classes are discriminatory. The policy defines discrimination as “treating an individual differently” based on protected classes “without a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason.”

“Treating individuals less favorably because of their actual or perceived membership in, or association with, a Protected Class, or having a neutral policy or practice that has a disproportionate and unjustified adverse impact on actual and/or perceived members or associates of one Protected Class more than others, constitutes Discrimination,” the policy reads.

Columbia includes characteristics including age, citizenship, race, national origin and religion as “protected” classes, according to the website.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2023  that race-based admission policies are unconstitutional, with Justice Clarence Thomas arguing in favor of a “colorblind Constitution.”

“Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” the decision read. “Accordingly, the Court has held that the Equal Protection Clause applies ‘without regard to any differences of race, of color, or of nationality’— it is ‘universal in [its] application.’ … For ‘[t]he guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color.’”

Columbia University has faced criticism in recent months over its handing of the pro-Palestinian protests that disrupted the campus during the spring semester. The school’s Task Force On Antisemitism, which was created in November of 2023, found in a report published in August that university faculty failed to protect Jewish students from antisemitism and harassment, despite students’ complaints.

Columbia University did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.