New guidance out Monday from the Biden administration urges colleges and universities to continue prioritizing campus diversity as they consider applications, following the Supreme Court’s highly anticipated decision banning affirmative action in admissions and overturning decades of precedent.
After the ruling, President Joe Biden’s administration swiftly announced it would help higher education officials navigate new legal restrictions while still promoting diversity on campus. The civil rights divisions of the U.S. Education and Justice departments published its first set of legal resources on the issue this week.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to end affirmative action has taken away a tool that colleges have used for decades to build diverse campus communities and create equitable opportunities for students of all backgrounds,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said on a call with reporters. “When individual states have banned affirmative action in the past, fewer students of color applied, and fewer students of color were admitted. We cannot afford that kind of backsliding on a national scale.”
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Here’s what you need to know.
What did the Supreme Court’s decision say?
The court’s June 29 majority opinion ruled the consideration of race in college admissions is unconstitutional.
Specifically, the justices concluded that the educational benefits of diversity can’t be objectively measured, and that colleges had failed to justify race-conscious admissions as the means to a diverse campus.
But the 6-3 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts also included this noteworthy caveat: “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”
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Biden administration: Discussion of race, lived experiences still allowed
The Biden administration has emphasized this caveat, and its new resources largely focus on encouraging colleges to work within it. “We are explicit that admissions officers can know what they come to know in reviewing files, and that is not something that the court asked them … to unsee,” said Education Department Assistant Secretary Catherine Lhamon. “We are reminding schools, given the decision, to be clear that they should not use demographic dat that reflects the race of student applicants to influence their admissions decisions. But admissions officers are not, by the court’s decision, prevented from learning an individual applicants race.”
With that in mind, the White House resources stress colleges can and should continue to practice holistic admissions. In such admissions, each student is evaluated on a case by case basis as an individual with multiple facets – not just on quantifiable, apples-to-apples metrics such as standardized test scores and grade point averages.
For example, a college may choose to admit a student whose guidance counselor discussed how she overcame feelings of isolation as a Latina at a predominantly white high school to join its debate team. Or, say, to admit an applicant who in her essay said learning to cook her grandma’s traditional Hmong dishes prompted her passion for food and helped her appreciate her heritage and develop a sense of self.
In these scenarios, colleges are able and encouraged to consider the applicants’ race-related lived experiences in terms of how they demonstrate of grit or curiosity or courage, for example, rather than on the basis of their race itself.
Said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta: “The Supreme Court’s opinion recognized what we know to be true: that race can be relevant to a person’s life or lived experience, and may impact one’s development motivations, academic interests, or personal or professional aspirations.”Contact Alia Wong at (202) 507-2256 or awong@usatoday.com. Follow her on X at @aliaemily.
