Biden administration advises alternatives to affirmative action
Suggested strategies include targeting school districts with specific demographic makeups.
In an August 14 letter, the Biden administration encouraged colleges and universities to reevaluate their legacy admissions policies.'
In response to the Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action in college admissions earlier this summer, the Biden administration is now suggesting different methods to recruit diverse minority groups.
The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights sent an August 14 question-and-answer document sent to colleges and universities detailing possible alternative methods. Suggested strategies include targeting school districts with specific demographic makeups.
[RELATED: APA calls for ‘adversity scales’ in admissions after SCOTUS affirmative action ruling]
”Institutions may also target school districts or high schools that are underrepresented in the institution’s applicant pool by focusing on geographic location (e.g., schools in the Midwest, or urban or rural communities) or other characteristics,” the document states.
The document also advises that admissions offices can glean information from students’ essays, but warns that “the Court criticized the practice of institutions adjusting their admissions priorities dynamically in response to demographic data on the race of students in the admitted class.”
The Department of Education goes beyond the application and instructs colleges to reconsider using “application fees, standardized testing requirements, pre-requisite courses such as calculus, or early decision timelines.”
[RELATED: Department of Education says affirmative action ruling ‘threatens to take us backwards’]
In response to the ruling, many colleges are also discarding legacy admissions. Campus Reform previously reported this year that the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech University, Occidental College, and Wesleyan University ended their legacy admissions practices.
In an August 14 “Dear Colleague” letter, the Biden administration encouraged colleges and universities to reevaluate their legacy admissions policies.
Campus Reform contacted all relevant parties for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
