The Supreme Court’s decisions in SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. University of North Carolina, the cases that could re-shape the role of race in admissions or even ban it entirely, are not likely to be known until next June. But institutions need to start preparing now for a range of possible outcomes, said Art Coleman, co-founder of EducationCounsel, a consultancy that works with schools on issues of diversity.
Art Coleman, co-founder of EducationCounsel
Coleman was presenting as part of a webinar organized by the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, part of a series about the cases that could fundamentally re-align their work. Coleman was peppered with questions about what might happen and the potential implications. Could future applicants be prevented from speaking fully about their racial identities? Unlikely. Could a decision impact eligibility for scholarships? Yes. Could it prevent DEI offices from funding ethnic student resource centers and programs? Probably not, if they are open to all. But the overarching message was that the decisions will reverberate far outside admissions offices and that colleges need to get ready now.
Coleman said that a common structure that schools are using is to have an overarching committee focusing on big picture issues, with subcommittees focusing on potential effects for individual departments. Schools should also make use of pre-existing resources, such as the National Association for College Admissions Counseling/National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators report “Toward a More Equitable Future for Post-Secondary Access,” and the Handbook on Diversity and the Law from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Schools should take time this fall to inventory all of their relevant policies and practices, Coleman said, and to gather the institutional and external research that could provide a foundation for how to make any necessary changes.
“It all ties into developing options so that we’re positioned with well-developed ideas that we can then pivot to, depending on what direction the court takes,” he said.
Institutions should prepare themselves not only with research on policy options, but on the educational benefits of diversity—the reason that affirmative action has been permitted for decades.
