AKIPRESS.COM - Administrators of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were sued by an advocacy group claiming race-based admissions policies violate the constitutional rights of highly qualified Asian applicants, the agencies report.

Students for Fair Admissions Inc., a group which said it represents unidentified college applicants rejected by both schools, alleged in lawsuits filed today that the use of racial preferences illegally limited admission of Asian Americans.

Such applicants “understand that they are not competing” against “the entire applicant pool,” the group said in its filing against Harvard’s governing body, the Harvard Corp., in Boston federal court. “They are competing only against each other, and all other racial and ethnic groups are insulated from competing against high-achieving Asian Americans.”

Administrators for the University of North Carolina have also used admissions policies aimed at achieving diversity that had a detrimental effect on Asian American applicants, the group alleged in a separate suit in Greensboro federal court.

The group claimed use of race in admissions allows universities including Harvard and UNC to show preferences for particular groups, failing to meet standards set under a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year requiring schools “implement race-neutral means to achieve student body and diversity before turning to racial classifications and preferences.”

Citing an earlier high court decision upholding affirmative action, Robert Iuliano, Harvard’s general counsel, said today that the university’s admissions policies “remain fully compliant with all legal requirements and are essential to the pedagogical objectives that underlie Harvard's educational mission.”

Rick White, associate vice chancellor for communications at UNC, said in a separate statement that the university “stands by its current undergraduate admissions policy and process.”