Brown University sees increase in Asian students after Supreme Court decision
Brown University saw an increase in Asian student enrollment for the fall of 2024 after the Supreme Court’s decision against race-based affirmative action.
Meanwhile, the enrollment of other racial groups, including Native American, black, and Hispanic students, decreased.
Following the Supreme Court’s 2023 prohibition of affirmative action in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, Brown University accepted relatively more Asian students than in years prior.
Specifically, the percentage of incoming Asian students rose to 33% in the fall of 2024, up from 29% in the fall of 2023, according to demographic data that the school released on Sept. 6.
Comparatively, the percentage of Native American, black, Hispanic, and white incoming students all decreased. The percentage of students who “did not report a race or ethnicity” rose to 7% in 2024 from 4% in 2023.
Logan Powell, provost for enrollment and dean of undergraduate admission at Brown University, hailed the incoming class of Brown freshmen as “diverse, although to a lesser degree than previously.”
“Even with a significant number of measures in place to ensure a diverse, talented applicant pool and enrolled class, we recognized the likelihood that declines in the number of students of color at Brown and other selective universities were widely anticipated across the country,” Powell said. “We’re pleased to welcome an academically excellent class of students and one that remains diverse, although to a lesser degree than previously.”
Powell nonetheless committed to use “race-neutral strategies” at the university in Rhode Island to procure “increasingly diverse” classes in the future.
“Expanding race-neutral strategies to encourage outstanding and increasingly diverse incoming classes will remain our priority moving forward,” Powell said. “When our student body is both exceptionally talented and representative of a broad array of experiences and perspectives, the Brown educational experience is enriched for all students, and we can make an even greater impact through our scholarship.”
“Brown’s commitment to a diverse campus community in every sense remains unchanged, and the first step in admitting a diverse class is ensuring that talented students of every background apply,” Powell concluded.
The Daily Caller reported that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) also experienced an increase in incoming Asian students from 41% in 2023 to 47% in 2024.
Campus Reform reported last year about the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions (S.F.F.A.) v. Harvard, in which the Court struck down a system of race-based affirmative action.
“Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” the Supreme Court held in that case. “Accordingly, the Court has held that the Equal Protection Clause applies ‘without regard to any differences of race, of color, or of nationality’—it is ‘universal in [its] application.’”
Campus Reform has contacted Brown University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
