09-11-2024
Many elite institutions have seen a drop in diverse admissions following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that completely eliminated race as a consideration. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and University of Washington in St. Louis saw a five percent drop. MIT was the first school to report a big drop. Some small liberal arts colleges also saw declines, with Amherst College having eight percent fewer Black students and four percent fewer Hispanic students. Tufts saw a three percent drop in Black students.
Yet, some highly selective colleges, like the University of Virginia, did not see a significant decline in Black and Asian American students. Yale enrolled precisely the same proportion of Black students and slightly increased its number of Hispanic students. Duke raised its combined share of Hispanic and Black students by one percentage point while its white and Asian American students fell by one and six points, respectively.
A director of higher education policy at the Urban Institute, Bryan Cook, told Inside Higher Ed that this early data reflects that race-neutral policies intended to increase diversity accounted for the difference in outcomes thus far. Before the Supreme Court decision, Duke implemented a new financial aid program and recruitment plan for low-income students from the Carolinas. UVA did the same for Virginia residents. Duke believes its focus on economic diversity led to its success in maintaining racial diversity. These racially-neutral policies may ameliorate the most extreme consequences of the ban on affirmative action. Thus, these plans may provide a way forward to maintain campuses with diverse student bodies. Experts caution that if private and public universities do not proactively take legally permissible steps to improve diversity, the enrollment numbers will continue to decline.