After Supreme Court axes affirmative action, Biden offers colleges tips on diversity

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.

The civil rights divisions of the federal Education and Justice departments published a set of legal resources on the issue this week, encouraging colleges to continue collecting applicants' demographic data, consider applicants' race-related lived experiences and keep students engaged once they do enroll.

“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.”

Renewed focus on first-gen students after Supreme Court affirmative action ruling

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.”

Race-based scholarships under scrutiny following Supreme Court's affirmative action ruling

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 data 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.”

Strategies for diversifying college campuses

There are, according to the guidance, other levers within admissions that colleges ought to consider. Perhaps they can choose to admit higher rates of first-generation students, for example, or to stop giving preference to the children of alumni. Other strategies could include making standardized test scores optional; removing prerequisite courses such as calculus (which isn’t always available in low-income schools); and waiving application fees.

Beyond admissions, the guidance highlights other strategies for promoting diversity on campus.

Advocates have long pushed for colleges to spend more time recruiting in underrepresented or low-income communities, and the documents published Monday highlighted such efforts as a key avenue to increasing or retaining campus diversity.

“In identifying prospective students through outreach and recruitment, institutions may, as many currently do, consider race and other factors that include, but are not limited to, geographic residency, financial means and socioeconomic status, family background, and parental education level,” the guidance notes.

And while the recent Supreme Court decision has raised questions in some circles about the legality of collecting applicants’ demographic data, the new guidance emphasizes such information-gathering remains valid and essential. Demographic data, the guidance says, can be critical to ensuring colleges aren’t discriminating in their admissions practices and developing programs that meet students’ needs.

Lastly, the guidance underscores the importance of keeping students of color on campus once they enroll through programs such as campus cultural centers, affinity clubs and diversity offices. As long as they are open to students of all races, the resources say, they are legally admissible.

While such initiatives have in recent years come under scrutiny – and, in some instances and states, been effectively outlawed – the Biden administration says such resources are especially crucial now so students “feel a sense of belonging and support once on campus.”

Democrats demand more scrutiny of racial discrimination in education

Upon the resources’ publication, Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, released a statement commending the guidance and urging ongoing scrutiny of “how race unjustly permeates many other policies and practices in our educational system.”

“This is important because race-conscious admissions policies were able to provide a counterbalance to factors − such as inequitable K-12 schools, racially biased admissions tests, and developmental and legacy admissions − that have discriminatory impact against students of color,” he said in a statement.

Scott wrote a letter to Lhamon earlier this month formally requesting such an investigation into trends such as the disproportionate suspension and expulsion of Black boys and the ongoing racial segregation of public schools. Contact Alia Wong at (202) 507-2256 or awong@usatoday.com. Follow her on X at @aliaemily.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Biden affirmative action response: Consider race within limits