Princeton U Sues U.S. DOE For Failure To Respond To FOIA Request

PRINCETON, NJ – Princeton University has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education alleging that the department failed to disclose information after the University made a FOIA request for documents related to an investigation in 2020.

The lawsuit was filed on May 17.

In June 2020, following widespread protests in response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others, Princeton’s President Christopher Eisgruber charged University leadership with developing plans to combat the lingering effects of systemic racism on Princeton’s campus and beyond.

Soon afterwards, The Department of Education under Besty DeVos initiated a Title VI investigation into the University's non discrimination practices.

In a letter to the university on Sep. 16, 2020, Federal officials said, "On September 2, 2020, you admitted Princeton's educational program is and for decades has been racist."

The DoE suggested that Princeton may not have been eligible for more than $75 million in taxpayer funding it received since Eisgruber became president in 2013.

The department said it was considering measures to "recover funds" or impose a fine.

In February 2021, the University announced the DoE has closed its investigation.

On December 8, 2022, Princeton submitted a FOIA request to the Department, for documents related to the investigation, according to the complaint.

When the initial request was unsuccessful, the University followed up in February and April 2023 requesting immediate response, the lawsuit said.

“Throughout the summer of 2023, Princeton (through legal counsel) sent multiple emails to Robert Wehausen, the Director of Operations for the Department’s FOIA Service Center,” according to the lawsuit. "Although Mr. Wehausen responded to some of those emails, indicating an intent on the part of the Department to provide Princeton with a substantive response, a substantive response was not provided.”

Then on Aug. 11 2023, Princeton provided the DOE “with a watermark draft of an earlier version of this Complaint.” This resulted in a series of exchanges which resulted in DOE representatives promising to orally “provide a response within one to two months.”

However, the records were not provided and after making more attempts the University decided to file the suit, the lawsuit said.

“The Department has yet to make available any records responsive to the request, or even to notify Princeton in the first instance of the Department’s determination of whether it will comply with the request,” according to the lawsuit.

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