Freshman classes offer glimpse into impact of affirmative action decision on colleges – Associated Press

University of North Carolina graduates take photos at the Old Well on the campus in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, June 30, 2020.

Some selective colleges are reporting declines in the number of black students in their entering classes, the first to be admitted since a Supreme Court ruling struck down affirmative action in higher education. At other universities, including Princeton University and Yale University, the proportion of black students has barely changed.

Several schools have also seen changes in the number of Asian, Hispanic and Native American students, but trends are still unclear. Experts and universities say it will take years to measure the full impact of last year’s decision banning consideration of race in admissions.

The end of affirmative action is not the only factor affecting the makeup of freshman classes. Some colleges are changing standardized test requirements, increasing their importance. And the federal government’s botched implementation of a new financial aid form has complicated decisions for students across the country about where and whether to attend college.

“It’s very difficult to determine which policy change is affecting all of these tuition changes,” said Katharine Meyer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank. “The unsatisfying answer is that it’s hard to know which one is having the biggest impact.”

On Thursday, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reported a drop in enrollment of black, Hispanic and Native American students in its incoming class. Its admissions strategy has been closely watched because it was one of two universities, along with Harvard University, at the center of the Supreme Court case.

The black student population dropped nearly 3 percentage points to 7.8 percent, compared with UNC’s previous class. Hispanic student enrollment fell to 10.1 percent from 10.8 percent, while the incoming Native American population dropped half a percentage point to 1.1 percent, according to the university. The incoming Asian student population rose 1 percentage point to 25.8 percent. The share of white students, at 63.8 percent, was little changed.

“It’s too early to see trends” from the affirmative action decision, said Rachelle Feldman, UNC’s vice chancellor for enrollment. She cited delays in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid application process as another possible influence on the makeup of the incoming class.

“We are committed to complying with the new law. We are also committed to ensuring that students from all 100 counties and all populations in our growing state feel encouraged to apply, feel confident in our affordability, and know that this is a place where they feel welcome and can succeed,” Feldman said.

Some colleges reported sharp declines in the percentage of black students in their entering classes, including drops from 15% to 5% at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and from 11% to 3% at Amherst College. At Tufts University, the drop in the share of black students was more moderate, from 7.3% to 4.7%. At Yale, the University of Virginia and Princeton, the year-over-year change was less than one percentage point.

Many colleges did not share applicant demographics, making it impossible to know whether fewer students of color applied or whether they were admitted but decided not to attend.

Changes in other demographic groups also did not follow a clear pattern. At MIT, for example, the percentage of Asian students rose from 40% to 47% and that of Hispanic and Latino students from 16% to 11%, while the percentage of white students remained relatively unchanged. But at Yale, the percentage of Asian students fell from 30% to 24%. White students at Yale went from 42% of the class to 46%, and Hispanic and Latino students saw a 1 percentage point increase.

Universities have been pursuing other strategies to preserve the diversity they consider essential to campus life.

JT Duck, Tufts’ dean of admissions, stressed that the school will work to expand outreach and partnerships with community organizations to reach underrepresented, low-income and first-generation students. He cautioned against reading too much into annual tuition changes.

“The results show that we have more work to do to ensure that talented students of all backgrounds, including those who have historically been underrepresented at selective colleges, have access to a Tufts education. And we are committed to doing that work, while adhering to new legal restrictions,” she said in an email. “We have already worked hard toward these ends and look forward to doing even more.”

At UNC, Feldman said it’s a priority to offer substantial financial aid to low-income families, as well as retain students through investments in college counseling and other initiatives. He said there are no plans for drastic changes in light of the new enrollment data.

The university wants to make sure that “anyone, regardless of their background, knows they can make a living here,” he said at a news conference.

Sharp declines in the number of students of color may affect how prospective students view schools, leading some to choose other colleges where they might feel a stronger sense of community, said Mitchell Chang, a professor of higher education at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“If we are below a certain threshold, people who feel they have a harder time developing a sense of belonging will choose somewhere else,” he said. This is especially true at selective colleges, where admitted students may have to choose between several top-tier schools.

So far, the reductions in the number of underrepresented minority students are less far-reaching than when states like Michigan and California passed affirmative action bans decades earlier, Meyer said. But since those bans, colleges have developed more best practices for effective, non-race-based ways to recruit and enroll a diverse class, Meyer said.