Although the Supremes have yet to hand down rulings in the Harvard and University of North Carolina affirmative action cases, it’s assumed that the Court will limit, if not eliminate, the use of race in college admissions. Whether it was called holistic or a collateral consideration only for the educational purpose of creating diverse classrooms on campus, it turned out that it served to produce racial quotas despite all the pretty bows tied around the admission decision. Acceptance for some. Denial for others. Race being the distinction between the two.
In anticipation, colleges are preparing to deal with the aftermath, eliminating standardized testing requirements which, they contend, favor wealthier white students who can afford test prep courses, as well as legacy admissions, sports recruitment, scholarships based on race, early admission, all of which for one reason or another are argued to favor white students over “Black and Latinx” (as if Asians didn’t exist). But I digress.
Still, college admissions counselors believe they will lose a generation.
If the court rules as expected, the class admitted for the fall of 2024 will look quite different, education officials said.
“We will see a decline in students of color attending college before we see an increase again,” said Angel B. Pérez, the chief executive of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. “We will be missing an entire generation.”
Why would that be? Are black and Hispanic students unaware that college exists? Didn’t their teachers and guidance counselors tell them to apply to college? Don’t their parents want them to go to college? Why would they suddenly stop attending college?
Mr. Granger, who also serves as president of the association for college admission counseling, expects changes even at the community college level. Citing drops in applications following statewide bans on affirmative action in Michigan and California, he said that some students from underrepresented groups may simply not apply.
But if black students know about college and “simply” choose not to apply, why would that be a problem? Are they not entitled to make their own decision whether to apply or not? Many would argue that the decision not to apply may well be the smarter choice, given the cost of college, the burden of student debt (terms and conditions apply), the opportunity costs lost and the availability of many occupations that pay well, are satisfying and require no degree.
This was argued by the universities before the Supreme Court as well.
“The probability of Black applicants receiving offers of admission would drop to half that of white students, and the percentage of Black students matriculating would drop from roughly 7.1 percent of the student body to 2.1 percent,” the brief said, predicting a return to “1960s levels.”
What would cause such a precipitous drop in offers of admission? Certainly the decision to “simply not apply” would reduce the universe of applicants, but surely there would still be enough applicants to Harvard and UNC to fill up a classroom. Why would their admits drop so greatly just because admissions decisions were not based on racial quotas?
The court could prevent colleges from purchasing lists of potential applicants that focus on race and ethnicity, a common practice used in recruitment, Dr. Pérez said.
“Fly-ins,” in which certain students are provided expense-paid visits to campuses, could also be on the chopping block. So could scholarship programs designated for students of color, which many rely on to afford tuition.
“Fly-in programs, scholarship programs, partnerships with churches and community-based organizations, where does it end?” Dr. Pérez asked.
Where does it end, indeed? Affirmative action has been the rule for almost 60 years now, and yet here we are, colleges complaining that without it, too few black students will apply and too few will be admitted. And even fewer will graduate, but that’s another problem. Why, after almost three generations, do black students still need to have their hands held, be led by the nose to drink at the gilded educational trough of Harvard?
Colleges are planning behind the scenes for the court ruling, though they are reluctant to release plans, worried about potentially opening themselves up to legal action.
“We don’t want to get ahead of the court, and we don’t want to give the court any ideas,” Dr. Pérez said.
Do college admissions counselors refuse to accept the premise that black students just aren’t that into them?
“It tells me something that half of Black and Latinx students are saying, ‘I don’t want to submit my test scores,’” Dr. Park said, adding that research shows that test-optional policies have a small but positive impact on enrollment of underserved minority students.
What does it tell her? What it does not tell her, apparently, is that you can eliminate all determinants of intelligence and competence, pretend that black and Hispanic students are somehow too clueless or sheltered to know that there’s a university on the other side of those Harvard gates and still they choose not to apply, not to attend.
Colleges are looking at the percentages of people by race in the population and trying to replicate those numbers on their campus, all the while denying they’re doing so because it would be unlawful discrimination. They’ve been playing this game for almost three generations now, and still aren’t close to achieving the numbers they believe in their most empathetic hearts they should if they weren’t racist. And they’ve turned racist in the process of doing so, even though they refuse to believe it and have redefined the word so as to create plausible deniability.
As someone who has long believed that racial diversity on campus serves an educational benefit, provided everybody is allowed to be themselves and talk openly and honestly about their experiences even if they fail to comport with the latest version of woke propriety, I think it’s a terrible shame that the racial makeup of highly selective and lowly selective colleges have a dearth of black and Hispanic students.
But you can’t make anyone apply to college, attend college, work hard in college, learn in college and graduate from college who doesn’t want to. Granted, there was a time when many black students and their parents, teachers and guidance counselors, rightly believed that racist admissions precluded their being admitted. But things have changed, and colleges have made it overwhelmingly clear that they desperately seek diversity. If black students, under these circumstances, choose not to apply anyway, at some point you have to respect their decision and focus instead on educating the students whose butts are in the seats.
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