The US Supreme Court ruled on June 29 that colleges and universities can no longer consider race when admitting students, ending decades of affirmative action policies.
Affirmative action policy contests first reached the Supreme Court in 1978, when SCOTUS ruled that the University of California could use race as an admissions factor. Since then, these policies have been maintained several times over the years. Many schools use these policies to create diversity on their campuses.
However, as of the Supreme Court’s ruling last week, college and universities can no longer consider race itself during the admissions process.
Dr. Jerrid Freeman, Vice President of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management at Northeastern State University, explained what the Supreme Court’s decision to end affirmative action means for NSU.
“The Supreme Court decision does not mean any change for NSU. We follow the admission rules and guidelines of [Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education] and we have no affirmative action in our admissions process,” Freeman said.
In her opinion, Kasey Rhone, co-founder of the Tulsa Intersectional Care Network and columnist for the Daily Press, said SCOTUS has sent a very bad message with this ruling.
“The Supreme Court has said they don’t care if the playing field is level,” Rhone said.
However, Rhone expects this to affect admissions to elite schools like Harvard more than Oklahoma universities. Schools in that state, he said, are seeing a decline in applications, anyway, so they likely won’t be as “selective” with admissions as elite schools might be.
“[Colleges] it can find more insidious ways to exclude people,” Rhone said.
Rhone said there could be an increase in admissions for “legacy” students and those whose parents are university faculty members.
“I’m hopeful that states and schools will create their own systems and metrics to make sure they’re attracting diverse students,” Rhone said. “You get better results when you have diverse people.”
what you said
In a website poll, TDP asked readers what they thought about the Supreme Court’s decision to remove affirmative action from the college admissions equation. Almost 59% said they fully supported the decision; 23.5% were absolutely opposed to the decision; 11.8% said they supported the decision; and 5.9% said they were somewhat opposed to the decision.
