Despite high court's ruling, diversity is crucial for colleges. Here's why.
On June 29, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that will reshape the admissions process at highly selective institutions across the country. In Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard, the Court ruled that colleges may no longer consider the race of applicants in admissions decisions (with very narrow exceptions).
The Court’s most recent ruling makes sweeping changes to the 20-year-old ruling in Grutter vs. Bollinger (2003), which held that colleges could consider many factors, including race, “to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body.”
Most of the discussion around the Supreme Court’s decision has focused on the constitutionality of using race-conscious admissions to help correct historical inequities — to level what many perceive to be an extremely tilted playing field. This is an important consideration that many universities will now struggle to address.
But there are other issues involved, too. This new ruling does not eliminate society's compelling interest in diverse student bodies — which are valuable for reasons not limited to the goals of affirmative action. Colleges must now find ways to achieve several important educational objectives without recourse to race-conscious admissions policies. I present three of these below.
Diversity is an essential part of the learning process. One of the things I love the most about working at a college is that education happens everywhere: in the residence halls, in the cafeteria, at social events and in the classes. And students learn as much from their peers as they do from their professors. So it matters who their peers are.
We learn more when we learn from people who are different from us because what we call “learning” almost always involves seeing things from different perspectives. The more perspectives we encounter, the better our education will be. The core function of a college, educating students, benefits immeasurably from a diverse community.
Diversity is vital for career preparation. Students who meet and become comfortable with different kinds of people during their formative college years will be better prepared to work with, and often to work for, different people during their careers.
Students who leave college without having had meaningful interactions with diverse groups of people will be at a marked disadvantage in the workplace for the rest of their lives. We are in the business of preparing students to succeed in the world they will live in. And that world is, and will continue to be, diverse.
Diversity is essential to democracy. The United Statesis a proud and diverse democracy in which people from many different backgrounds must combine to form a single body politic. This is no easy task, and it requires that we learn to see all types of people through a lens of charity and civic friendship.
Our Founders knew and understood that the greatest threat to our democracy would be permanent factions, or groups of people who stuck rigidly to their own identities and tried to deny others a seat at the democratic table.
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision, colleges and universities will be re-examining our admissions policies and making sure that they comply with the law. We will also be renewing our commitment to creating diverse communities in which students can learn vital lessons that will prepare them for the world they will build.
Colleges and universities are uniquely positioned to create spaces where students learn to work across racial, political, religious and other divides. But we can only do this if we continue to see diversity as a core part of our institutional missions.
Michael Austin is the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Evansville.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Diversity remains crucial for colleges after Supreme Court ruling
