Harvard, Yale see identical demographics for new classes despite SCOTUS ruling
Some elite schools have admitted new classes with identical demographics to those in previous years, despite the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision against affirmative action.
As noted by The Washington Free Beacon, such elite schools warned that the removal of race-based affirmative action practices would harm enrollment figures for minorities.
Several elite universities have admitted new classes with identical demographics to those in previous years, despite the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision that declared race-based affirmative action to be unconstitutional in college admissions.
The Washington Free Beacon recently reported that some major universities have released demographic data for the incoming class of 2028, which shows little to no change in the racial makeup of admitted students. Specifically, data has been released by Duke University, Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Princeton University.
As noted by the Free Beacon, such elite schools warned that the removal of race-based affirmative action practices would harm enrollment figures for minorities.
Harvard’s class of 2028, however, saw no change in Asian American representation, an increase in Hispanic representation from 14 percent to 16 percent, and a slight decrease from 18 percent to 14 percent in African American representation.
Similarly, Yale had no change in its percentage of admitted African American students, while Hispanic representation rose from 18% to 19% and Asian American representation went down from 30% to 24%
Campus Reform has reported about the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the seminal case that struck down race-based affirmative action in the United States.
“Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” the Supreme Court held. “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.’”
University of San Francisco law professor Gail Heriot, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, told the Free Beacon that some elite universities appear not to be complying with the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“It looks to me like Yale is deliberately sending a message that it doesn’t intend to comply with the law,” Heriot said. “The fact that the Asian-American numbers have gone down so drastically at Yale strikes me as a red flag.”
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Dan Morenoff, the executive director of the American Civil Rights Project, also pointed to potential violations of the Supreme Court ruling.
“Either what they said to the Court was factually wrong or what they said was right and, therefore, they are not engaging in race-neutral admissions policies now,” Morenoff told the Free Beacon. “I don’t think there is room for a third possibility.”
Campus Reform has contacted Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Duke University, and the University of Pennsylvania for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
