Colleges and universities can no longer use race as a factor in their college admissions, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday, striking down the decades-long practice of affirmative action and upending schools’ admission tactics—which they warn could make future student bodies significantly less diverse.
Students enter the Admissions building on the campus of Harvard University on September 12, 2006, in ... [+]
The court ruled 6-3 that Harvard University and the University of North Carolina’s admissions policies taking race into account are unconstitutional.
Students for Fair Admissions brought two cases against Harvard and UNC—representing private and public universities, respectively—arguing the practice violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause and disadvantaged white and Asian-American applicants.
Harvard and UNC had said the practice should be upheld, saying their admissions policies are in line with previous court rulings on the policy and that taking race into account helps to ensure a diverse student body, denying that the practice is discriminatory.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
Universities have warned that getting rid of affirmative action would significantly impact the diversity of their student bodies, with Harvard arguing in court briefs that taking race out of its admissions process would reduce enrollment of Black students at the school from 14% to 6% of its student body, and Hispanic enrollment from 14% to 9%. It has also predicted the ruling will result in a 14% drop in students studying the humanities. At least nine states—Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Washington—already have policies that don’t allow race to count in university admissions. The University of Michigan said in a court brief that after it adopted race-neutral policies, its Black population decreased by 44% between 2006 and 2021 as a result, even as Michigan’s population of college-age African Americans increased.
How or if universities will be able to get around the court’s ruling to maintain diverse enrollment. Universities have already started putting strategies in place ahead of the court’s ruling, the Boston Globe reported in April, such as working more closely with community colleges and high schools in underserved areas, and 16 schools—including Yale and MIT—have banded together on an effort aimed at recruiting more rural students. University of Maryland education professor Julie J. Park told Axios a ruling overturning affirmative action action could also lead to standardized testing getting killed as an admissions requirement—as tests like the SAT historically benefit higher-income students—and the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) issued guidance that recommends steps like appointing a review team to create strategies on how to comply with the ruling. Ultimately, however, the Associated Press notes efforts in states where affirmative action had already been eliminated have still not been able to fully make up for taking race into account in admissions, and it remains to be seen whether efforts will become more successful if affirmative action is now overturned on a national level.
41.5%. That’s the approximate percentage of U.S. universities that take race into account when determining admissions, according to a study by the National Association for College Admissions Counseling that Harvard cited in a court brief, as well as 60% of more selective universities that accept 40% or fewer of their applicants.
Affirmative action was first established in a 1965 executive order that told employers to “take affirmative action to ensure that equal opportunity is provided in all aspects of their employment.” The Supreme Court then sanctioned affirmative action for university admissions in 1978—though it ruled schools could not use racial quotas for admissions—and affirmed the practice in subsequent rulings in 2003 and 2016, though it struck down a “point system” at the University of Michigan that automatically gave applications from underrepresented racial minorities enough points to virtually guarantee admission. The Supreme Court agreed to take up the Harvard and UNC cases in January 2022 after lower courts sided with the schools and upheld affirmative action, prompting SFFA to appeal the case to the high court.
Supreme Court Justices Signal Willingness To End Affirmative Action (Forbes)
Affirmative Action Could Soon Be Overturned As Supreme Court Takes Up Harvard And UNC Cases (Forbes)
Explainer: What happens if the US Supreme Court bans affirmative action? (Reuters)