With the first year’s data since the Supreme Court ruled that affirmative action as practiced by the nation’s colleges and universities was unconstitutional, it is becoming clearer that at elite or more selective universities, Black enrollment is trending down since the Court’s 2023 ruling.
According to The New York Times, although Black enrollment at elite universities is going down, enrollment numbers at other universities seems unclear. At Amherst College, Tufts University, and MIT, for example, Black enrollment went down by eight percent, three percent, and 10 percent, respectively.
In comparison, the outlet reported that the University of Virginia, a public university, only experienced a slight decrease in its share of Black students, a sign that less selective schools may not feel the impact like elite universities appear to.
Although the picture painted by school enrollment data is still developing, supporters of affirmative action have been warning that the upending of affirmative action policy will have a negative and immediate impact on diversity at universities. That hypothesis is however difficult to prove, given the Supreme Court ruling also keeps admissions officers from looking at applicants’ races unless it happens to come up organically.
Matthew L. McGann, Amherst College’s admissions dean, told the Times that their numbers have been directly affected by the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“As a consequence of the Supreme Court’s decision, the incoming class is not as racially diverse as recent classes have been. Other institutions have seen a similar impact, and all colleges and universities are evaluating the outcomes of this first admission cycle under the new legal standard.” McGann said.
Critics of affirmative action, in contrast to supporters of the policy, say that the drop in enrollment will be temporary, while universities, like the University of Virginia, implement their workarounds for the current state of affirmative action.
The University of Virginia, located in Charlottesville, Virginia, has created partnerships with public schools in low-income communities to recruit a diverse pool of students to its campus.
According to Justin Driver, a Yale Law professor and an expert on the Supreme Court’s education rulings, the program exemplifies how institutions can be creative in utilizing solutions to a problem created by the Supreme Court.
“It is a fine example of how universities can be creative, consistent with the Constitution, to avoid the plummeting enrollment of Black students that some universities have already witnessed,” Driver told The New York Times.
Amherst’s President Michael A. Elliott described to the outlet how a seemingly small drop in enrollment numbers can change how students experience life at his university.
“On a small campus, the drop in demographic population can change the experience for those students. One of the unfortunate circumstances of the ruling is that it might diminish the sense of belonging that a student feels here. And we do not want that to occur,” Elliott said.
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