{"id":2410,"date":"2025-10-28T09:14:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T10:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/?p=2410"},"modified":"2025-10-28T13:41:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:41:48","slug":"colleges-feel-the-weight-of-supreme-court-affirmative-action-decision-as-black-enrollment-falls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/28\/colleges-feel-the-weight-of-supreme-court-affirmative-action-decision-as-black-enrollment-falls\/","title":{"rendered":"Colleges feel the weight of Supreme Court affirmative action decision as Black enrollment falls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two years after the Supreme Court ruled to abolish affirmative action<\/a> in higher education admissions, Black enrollment at selective universities is down, Asian American enrollment is\u00a0up\u00a0and the\u00a0implications\u00a0of the\u00a0decision\u00a0are\u00a0becoming clearer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

An analysis by The Associated Press<\/a> of 20 elite schools\u00a0shows the drastic effect the 2023 high court decision had on enrollment, with some institutions seeing their Black student population drop to as low as 2 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While everyone agrees the 6-3 Supreme Court decision is the cause, debate swirls around how schools can get\u00a0the numbers back up and how the Trump administration would respond to a concerted effort to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recent decline in Black student enrollment at elite institutions is not accident,\u201d said\u00a0Madison Weiss, senior analyst for Higher Education Policy at the Center for American Progress. \u201cIt reflects the very predictable and deeply troubling consequences of dismantling one of our nation’s most effective tools for equity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The biggest decrease the AP found was at Columbia University, which went from 20 percent Black student population before the ruling to 13 percent in 2025. Harvard went from 18 percent to\u00a011.5 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most other institutions had a drop between 2 percent and 5 percent in Black enrollment, with the California\u00a0Institute\u00a0of Technology seeing the lowest Black student population of the schools at 1.6 percent, compared to 5 percent before the ruling.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asian American enrollment went up at many institutions, although the changes were often smaller than the drops in Black enrollment.\u00a0Asian American enrollment rose 9 percent at Columbia, 4 percent at Harvard and 6.5 percent at Haverford College.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other schools,\u00a0such as Yale University and Amherst College, saw declines or no\u00a0differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re back to numbers that we worked really,\u00a0really hard\u00a0to eliminate. Where we, as in higher education, we worked\u00a0really hard\u00a0to diversify all colleges and universities, and so\u00a0I’m\u00a0worried about how that is going to slip back. … I am\u00a0pretty deeply\u00a0concerned that we are going back to a time where\u00a0we’re\u00a0not thinking about those past inequities and\u00a0kind of trying\u00a0to pretend that they never existed, or that they\u00a0don’t\u00a0exist, or that they\u00a0don’t\u00a0continue to have an impact,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Marybeth Gasman, executive director for Rutgers University\u2019s Center for Minority Serving Institutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Experts say one way to help diversify the student population is abolishing legacy admissions<\/a>, a practice that has disproportionately been favorable to rich or white applicants.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Others have championed a \u201cholistic\u00a0review” that helps ensure\u00a0low-income\u00a0students, rural\u00a0applicants\u00a0and\u00a0first-generation\u00a0students\u00a0are given fair consideration.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInstitutions can and must use every race-neutral tool available to promote diversity and equity,\u201d\u00a0Weiss said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Universities\u00a0\u201ccan also think about adopting targeted outreach and mentorship programs for underrepresented communities in the K-12 pipelines. They can also consider broadening geographic recruitment\u00a0and\u00a0partnering more closely with public schools and community\u00a0colleges\u00a0in\u00a0underserved areas,\u201d she added.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

And in the current political environment, colleges could face fierce opposition to any new efforts to diversify their student bodies.<\/p>\n

Before the Supreme Court\u2019s decision,\u00a050 percent of Americans<\/a>\u00a0said they disapproved of taking a student\u2019s race or ethnic background into consideration during college admissions, and since then, the Trump administration has made a priority out of eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs.<\/p>\n

Some experts have no problem with the new numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t necessarily see that as a good or bad thing, but I see that as just the results of this new admissions regime that colleges are required to operate under,\u201d said Preston Cooper,\u00a0a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans think that colleges should not be\u00a0taking into account\u00a0race when\u00a0they’re\u00a0making their admissions decisions,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In deals the Trump administration has made with universities to restore frozen funding or end federal investigations, it has targeted admissions processes<\/a> and had schools agree to ensure race is not used in ways it says is against the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m\u00a0concerned that\u00a0they’re\u00a0not going to fix it, and if they do,\u00a0they’re\u00a0going to be\u00a0… really,\u00a0really quiet\u00a0about it, because any attempts to fix something are going to be attacked by the Trump\u00a0administration,\u201d Gasman\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think that institutions can do something, but I think they’re going to have to be fairly stealth about it and quiet about it,\u201d she added.\u00a0But, even if a school does succeed, \u201cI just think the Trump administration is going to keep asking questions until they get the answer that they want.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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