Brown Is One of 16 U.S. Universities Being Sued in Federal Court for Alleged Antitrust Violations

Brown Is One of 16 U.S. Universities Being Sued in Federal Court for Alleged Antitrust Violations

A federal lawsuit has been filed against Brown University and 15 other universities for alleged antitrust violations

Specifically, five former students are alleging that the universities colluded to determine financial-aid awards to students.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting Monday that the “lawsuit filed in Illinois federal court late Sunday by law firms representing five former students who attended some of the schools, the universities engaged in price fixing and unfairly limited aid by using a shared methodology to calculate applicants’ financial need. Schools are allowed under federal law to collaborate on their formulas, but only if they don’t consider applicants’ financial need in admissions decisions. The suit alleges these schools do weigh candidates’ ability to pay in certain circumstances, and therefore shouldn’t be eligible for the antitrust exemption.”

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The suit seeks damages and a permanent end to the schools’ collusion in calculating financial need and awarding aid.

"The University has not been served with the lawsuit, so we are aware of it only from media reports. Based on a preliminary review, the complaint against Brown has no merit and Brown is prepared to mount a strong effort to make this clear. Brown is fully committed to making admission decisions for U.S. undergraduate applicants independent of ability to pay tuition, and we meet the full demonstrated financial need of those students who matriculate. If we are served with the complaint, we will conduct a full review and respond as appropriate through the legal process," said Brian Clark, Associate Vice President for News and Editorial Development, for Brown University.

"Amherst College in October said it would stop giving an edge to applicants whose parents attended the school, placing it among the first elite schools to ditch legacy preferences. And in part because the pandemic made it difficult for students to take the ACT and SAT, thousands of colleges shifted to a test-optional policy for recent and current applicants. Hundreds of those schools have since extended the offer for at least a few more years," writes the WSJ.

In addition to Brown, Yale, Georgetown, Northwestern, the California Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Duke University, Emory University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Pennsylvania, Rice University and Vanderbilt University.

Lawyers for the litigants tell the WSJ that more than 170,000 former undergraduate students who received partial financial aid at those schools going back up to 18 years could be eligible to join the suit as plaintiffs.