U of Tennessee System offering guaranteed admission to qualifying high school students

In what could be a new model to boost diversity without affirmative action in college admissions, some university systems are implementing guaranteed admission for high schoolers who graduate with certain academic standing.

On Sept. 8, the University of Tennessee System became the latest public university system to announce that it will guarantee admission to all in-state students finishing within the top 10% of their respective high school class. 

“We want to keep our state’s best and brightest in Tennessee,” UT System President Randy Boyd stated in a press release. “By offering automatic admission, prospective students will know earlier in the college selection process that there is a place for them at their state’s top public university system.”

[RELATED: GOULD: Mainstream media is wrong about affirmative action]

However, according to former Missouri State University president and Forbes senior contributor, Michael Nietzel, UT’s move might really be a “race-neutral policy intended to achieve greater student diversity,” similar to what states like Florida and Texas have adopted over the years.

In a Sept. 6 interview with Knox News, President Boyd acknowledged that he hopes the top 10% guaranteed admission option would allow UT schools to better represent the population of the state.

”Typically, we’re underrepresented in some of our inner city schools and some of our rural schools,” he said. “That’s one of the things that we’re striving for is that our student body reflects the population of the state. If you admit the top 10% of every high school across the state — or they’re eligible — it gives us a better chance to be more representative.”

Melissa Tindell, the Assistant Vice President of Communications for the UT System, told Campus Reform that the program should “help to encourage college-ready students from low-income backgrounds to seek out four-year degrees and more rigorous university experiences.” 

Washington State University and the University of Texas System also offer similar guaranteed admission to qualifying in-state high schoolers. 

Since the Supreme Court’s ruling against college admissions affirmative action standards on June 29, Campus Reform has reported instances of schools pursuing diversity, even if that means lowering academic standards.

[RELATED: TASHJY: Race has become ‘the factor’ for admission to college, in many cases]

In early June, Campus Reform reported that ACLU president and NYU Law professor Deborah Archer indicated on the school’s website that colleges should push for diversity even if the Supreme Court were to strike down affirmative action policies.

Similarly, Campus Reform reported in March that Delaware had decreased the minimum score, duration, and content breadth for the state’s bar exam, largely hoping to achieve greater diversity in the legal profession.

Rob Jenkins, a Campus Reform Higher Education Fellow and Associate Professor of English at Georgia State University, explains in an article from September 2022 that liberals seek to eliminate merit in the education system because it is in opposition to their ideological DEI initiatives.   

“To the Left, the fact that everyone does not achieve equally constitutes prima facie evidence of discrimination, which can be remedied only by abandoning the merit system altogether,” he writes.

Campus Reform reached out to President Boyd, Washington State University, and the University of Texas System for comment. This article will be updated accordingly. 

Follow Emily Fowler on X.