An audience of nearly 40 students, faculty and staff attended “Understanding the End of Affirmative Action in College Admissions” on Oct. 23 at the University of Massachusetts Campus Center to discuss the implications of the recent Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action.

The roundtable event featured experts on racial justice, higher education and constitutional law, including moderator Dr. Jamie Rowen, director for the Center for Justice, Law, and Societies, Erin Bernard, interim director of first-year admissions, Princess Garrett, a doctoral student in social justice education and Rebecca Hamlin, director of the Legal Studies Program.

“There’s not been a time where this has not been debated publicly, [and] has not gone back and forth within the courts,” Garrett said.

The two cases, brought by plaintiff Students for Fair Admissions, were against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, challenging race-conscious admissions policies at these schools.

Ultimately, six of nine justices voted to consider race as a factor in college applications a violation of the Equal Protection Clause within the 14th Amendment. Military academies were exempt from the decision.

“This is the first time in American history that we have a Supreme Court majority who takes this view of the 14th amendment,” Hamlin said. “And it’s really still a minority view.”

Hamlin drew attention to how racial minorities are subjected to misconceptions about affirmative action.

“When we talk about the benefit of diversity, it’s strongly implied that the benefit is enough,” Hamlin said. “Especially in a PWI [predominantly white institution], the benefit is for the white students to have exposure to people that are different from them, because it enhances their education.”

In the early 1960s, former President John F. Kennedy issued affirmative action as an executive order to increase minority employment, and this practice was expanded into college and university admissions shortly after.

In 1978, the court heard a case on affirmative action for the first time in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, challenging the University of California Davis’ School of Medicine application pool.

Social justice as means of serving underrepresented students

Following Hamlin’s analysis of the ruling, Garrett spoke after, drawing insight from her nearly 20-year career in public education, activism and community organizing out of Providence and Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Garrett researches the marginalization of Black women and girls in educational spaces, and emphasized the importance of consistent outreach towards students of color that are underrepresented.

Part of Garrett’s research also includes interviewing students of color at UMass and various colleagues from her career to gauge community opinion on the elimination of affirmative action.

“I want to point to social justice as an opportunity for us to do something greater,” Garrett said. “Social justice pushes us to look at the systems themselves, the systems that demand we create some sort of change.”

Garrett encouraged the audience to challenge the rhetoric that white students do not benefit from affirmative action. She argues research has shown white women benefit the most.

Findings from the U.S. Department of Labor dating back to 1995 found since the 1960s, affirmative action helped five million members of minority groups, and six million women move forward in the workforce.

In an October 2021 study, the Pew Research Center found that women are more likely than men to hold a four-year college degree. USA TODAY also concluded that white women increased their share of senior leadership positions at a rate double that of women of color from 2020 to 2022.

Garrett added there is a need for more comprehensive, community-based efforts to address continued disparities in access to higher education.

Strengthening institutional diversity through student recruitment and retention

In regards to recruitment, Bernard said the University maintains campus partnerships with community-based organizations, and that there are “target schools” UMass deems as having “high institutional priority.”

Programs such as “Ready Set Apply” work with first-generation students to translate initial recruitment into a complete application. Another program called “URep” hosts underrepresented students overnight on campus.

“There’s a lot that we could do to get more and more students on campus and really [make] UMass an option,” Bernard said. “Having people of color on faculty and in leadership roles…having people in those roles that can come to events, that people can see themselves in these kinds of leadership positions, is also something that’s important and I know a lot of people on campus are working towards that, but I think we can always do a better job there as well.”

Bernard also touched on shifting approaches to increasing diversity in a university space, including how to identify the self-imposed barriers students often face when navigating the college application process.

“Sometimes students don’t even see themselves going to college and being able to have representation on our staff can make almost the biggest impact of anything that we do,” Bernard said.

Referring to revisions made to the Common Application, Bernard noted the addition of a question which prompted students to discuss a certain community they were part of, and how the community shaped who they are. Bernard also referenced the changing landscape of college admissions with consideration for the shifting definition of a “holistic” review process.

“I think the biggest thing for me for people to take away is that we have always admitted students who belong here and because of their ability, not because of their race,” Bernard said.

In a letter to the UMass community after the rulings, former Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy highlighted the University’s use of a holistic admissions process since 2011. During this period, the percentage of students of color in the incoming class grew from 21 to 37 percent.

Aside from the discussion of student recruitment, panelists and audience members discussed retention among students of color on campus.

“Not only is it a matter of bringing in more diverse students, but how do we make sure they actually feel safe?” Zach Steward, a public policy graduate student, asked.

Steward noted there was a “myriad of racist incidents” when he enrolled as an undergraduate student in 2018, noticing a pattern throughout his time at the University.

“It might be one of those things where students end up applying here and then choose not to come because they know the University doesn’t respond well to incidents of racism, homophobia or transphobia,” Steward added. “So I guess the question is, how do we make sure that the institution is actually living up to its ideals and making sure that students are able to not only survive, but thrive?”

Financial disparities in higher education

Public policy and administration graduate student Kenna Chardonnette shared her concerns about financial support from the University and said a few of her friends had to drop out from a lack of financial aid.

“So what does admissions do with financial aid, to make sure students of color can afford to come in?” Chardonnette asked. “As you know, a lot of them are low income or first generation and a lot of students are going to be working to put themselves through college.”

Erika Dawson Head, executive director of diversity and inclusive community development for the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, is part of a team working on a grant through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to help support students that experience issues such as financial barriers.

Dawson shared that Elizabeth Connor, professor and associate dean for undergraduate education in the College of Natural Sciences, found that within the college a higher percentage of students of color are not able to register for classes on time due to account holds, often caused by outstanding tuition or fee payments.

“There’s a lot of work to be done, and I think people are really doing what they can do within the bounds of the law and the policies that have existed, but there’s definitely space for growth,” Garrett said.

Olivia Capriotti can be reached at [email protected]. Catharine Li can be reached at [email protected].