The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down affirmative action in college admissions, declaring race cannot be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies.
The court’s conservative majority overturned admissions plans at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest private and public colleges, respectively.
The decision from the nation’s highest court also has an impact on HBCUs, too.
Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick, speaking to CNN on Thursday, called the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action an “unfortunate decision.”
“Historically Black colleges and universities are carrying an outsized burden to diversify so many industries in America. We represent only 3% of the higher [education] institutions, but we are responsible for 25% of the bachelor’s degrees,” he said on CNN Thursday. “By not allowing race to be considered in admissions elsewhere, you can put an even more outsized burden on historically Black colleges and universities who don’t have the capacity to carry that type of a burden.”
The ruling will make admissions decisions very complicated for HBCUs, said Frederick.
“Obviously, we all are going to be kind of avoiding lawsuits, and so trying to have a very sterile process. It is going to be almost impossible, and trying to create one is going to be far more difficult today given this ruling. So I think that we are all going to have to look at the rules very carefully,” he told CNN.
Fredrick suggested that the ruling could put an additional burden on HBCUs to produce more graduates to work in various industries and set up institutions to worry about legal challenges that could be presented over admissions.
“So it is going to be a road that is going to require a lot more resources. I think that for institutions that don’t have as many resources could be blindsided by lawsuits about this,” Frederick said.
