More than 50 universities are being investigated for alleged racial discrimination as part of President Donald Trump맥스카지노�s campaign to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs that his officials say exclude white and Asian American students.The Education Department announced the new investigations Friday, one month after issuing a memo warning America맥스카지노�s schools and colleges that they could lose federal money over 맥스카지노�race-based preferences맥스카지노� in admissions, scholarships or any aspect of student life.맥스카지노�Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin,맥스카지노� Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. 맥스카지노�We will not yield on this commitment.맥스카지노�Most of the new inquiries are focused on colleges맥스카지노� partnerships with the PhD Project, a nonprofit that helps students from underrepresented groups get degrees in business with the goal of diversifying the business world.Department officials said that the group limits eligibility based on race and that colleges that partner with it are 맥스카지노�engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs.맥스카지노�The group of 45 colleges facing scrutiny over ties to the PhD Project include major public universities such as Arizona State, Ohio State and Rutgers, along with prestigious private schools like Yale, Cornell, Duke and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.A message sent to the PhD Project was not immediately returned.Six other colleges are being investigated for awarding 맥스카지노�impermissible race-based scholarships,맥스카지노� the department said, and another is accused of running a program that segregates students on the basis of race.Those seven are: Grand Valley State University, Ithaca College, the New England College of Optometry, the University of Alabama, the University of Minnesota, the University of South Florida and the University of Tulsa School of Medicine.The department did not say which of the seven was being investigated for allegations of segregation. The Feb. 14 memo from Trump's Republican administration was a sweeping expansion of a 2023 Supreme Court decision that barred colleges from using race as a factor in admissions.That decision focused on admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, but the Education Department said it will interpret the decision to forbid race-based policies in any aspect of education, both in K-12 schools and higher education.In the memo, Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, had said schools맥스카지노� and colleges' diversity, equity and inclusion efforts have been 맥스카지노�smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming and discipline.The memo is being challenged in federal lawsuits from the nation맥스카지노�s two largest teachers맥스카지노� unions. The suits say the memo is too vague and violates the free speech rights of educators.