The US Supreme Court yesterday struck down race-conscious admissions policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, a practice called affirmative action employed by a majority of selective schools.
The court ruling ended decades of precedent that had allowed schools nationwide to use such programmes to increase the diversity of their student bodies.
Colleges and universities that take race into consideration have said they do so as part of a holistic approach that reviews every aspect of an application, including grades, test scores and extracurricular activities.
The goal of race-conscious admissions policies was to increase student diversity in order to enhance the educational experience for all students. Schools also employ recruitment programmes and scholarship opportunities intended to boost diversity, but the Supreme Court litigation was focused on admissions.
The concern now, however, is whether the ruling will significantly reduce the number of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students enrolled at elite institutions.
While many schools do not disclose details about their admissions processes, taking race into account is more common among selective schools that turn down most of their applicants.
In a 2019 survey by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, about a quarter of schools said race had a “considerable” or “moderate” influence on admissions, while more than half reported that race played no role whatsoever.
Nine states have banned the use of race in admissions policies at public colleges and universities: Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington.
The Supreme Court decided two cases brought by Students for Fair Admissions, a group headed by Edward Blum, a conservative legal strategist who has spent years fighting the policy.
One case contended that Harvard’s admissions policy unlawfully discriminates against Asian American applicants. The other asserted that the University of North Carolina unlawfully discriminates against white and Asian American applicants.
The schools rejected those claims, saying race is determinative in only a small number of cases and that barring the practice would result in a significant drop in the number of minority students on campus.
The decision by the Supreme Court yesterday will force elite colleges and universities to revamp their policies and search for new ways to ensure diversity in their student populations. Many schools have said other measures would not be as effective.
In briefs filed with the Supreme Court, the University of California and the University of Michigan – top public college systems from states that have outlawed race-conscious admissions – said they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on alternative programmes intended to improve diversity, but that those efforts have fallen far short of goals.
