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Affirmative Action Battle Moves to Race-Based College Scholarships
Some schools drop race from consideration for scholarships after Supreme Court decision
https://www.wsj.com/articles/affirm...s-to-race-based-college-scholarships-6b1789e1
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Douglas Belkin & Megan Tagami (06 July 2023)
Universities in at least two states say they will no longer take race into account in awarding scholarships in the wake of the Supreme Court’s
landmark finding on affirmative action.
Though the decision finding race-based admissions policies unconstitutional last week didn’t address scholarships, the University of Kentucky and the University of Missouri System have already said they would remove race as a criteria in scholarship programs. Other colleges are expected to follow suit, as
many face political pressure to make changes following the court’s ruling.
"We are still reviewing the details of the ruling, but, based on our initial understanding, it appears that the court has restricted the consideration of race with respect to admissions and scholarships,” University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto said the day the ruling was released.
The court’s 6-3 decision involved cases filed against Harvard University and University of North Carolina, alleging
race-conscious admissions practices help Black and Latino applicants while
hurting Asian applicants.
The moves to drop race-based scholarships highlight the rising uncertainty over how colleges and universities will navigate categories such as race, gender and class following the court’s ruling.
Paulette Granberry Russell, president and chief executive of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, said the Supreme Court opinion only addressed the use of race in admissions and it was premature to extend its reach to scholarships.
“We have been concerned about the chilling effect that the decision might have on efforts to diversify campuses, as well as to cultivate inclusive environments, and we now see how this is already playing out,” she said.
Several conservative lawmakers are supporting the move to eliminate the consideration of race from scholarships. Last week, Wisconsin Speaker of the House Robin Vos
tweeted: Lawmakers “will introduce legislation to correct the discriminatory laws on the books and pass repeals in the fall.”
Hours after the Supreme Court opinion was handed down, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, sent letters to the University of Missouri system and Missouri State University, demanding that they “immediately cease their practice of using race-based standards to make decisions about things like admissions, scholarships, programs, and employment.”
About 5.3% of financial aid across the University of Missouri system is doled out through scholarships and other aid that consider an applicants’ race or ethnicity, said Uriah Orland, a spokesman for the school. That totaled about $16 million in the past academic year. The scholarships are a mix of one-time awards and long-term aid, Orland said.
The university will honor these scholarships and financial aid in the 2023-24 school year, but will follow the attorney general’s directive and disband the awards moving forward, Orland said. The university is still determining how to address scholarships that were intended to stretch over multiple years, he said.
The Board of Curators, the university’s governing body, is considering reallocating the money currently dedicated for financial aid with a race-based component and reinvesting some of it to scholarships based on students’ socioeconomic status, Orland said.
“The Supreme Court decision certainly provided more guidance and direction for us as we look at scholarships and financial aid,” Orland said.
Joanna Rodelo, a Latina student at University of Missouri-Columbia, received a $10,000 scholarship last year that was funded by a major accounting firm in partnership with the university and was specifically designated for racial minority students. She reapplied to receive the scholarship for the coming academic year.
With two years left to finish her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Rodelo said she is unsure how she will afford the remainder of her education if the university discontinues her scholarship program.
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt so unwanted in my life,” Rodelo said.
The University of Kentucky doesn’t have any race-exclusive scholarships but “there are numerous scholarships that consider race as one factor among many,” said Jay Blanton, a school spokesman.
In the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court decision, some schools said they hoped to take advantage of a loophole in the ruling and
leverage college essays to identify students of color to help build a racially diverse campus.
The aftershocks from the decision continued on Monday when a Massachusetts civil rights organization filed a lawsuit against Harvard University challenging the school’s consideration of legacy status in admissions. Legacy consideration confers an advantage to applicants whose parents attended the school. The students who benefit are disproportionately wealthy and white.
Efforts to get rid of race-based scholarships follow in the footsteps of Mark Perry, professor emeritus at University of Michigan, who has been working for years to curtail scholarships and spaces on campus that are reserved for women or people of color. Perry contends the practices amount to discrimination, most often against white people and men.
Since 2016, Perry said he has filed 845 complaints with the federal Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, charging schools are in violation of antidiscrimination regulations when they advertise scholarships, fellowships or awards limited to one particular racial group or gender.
Of the 385 cases that have been adjudicated, he said he has won about 90%, starting with his initial complaint to shut down a women-only student lounge on the campus of Michigan State University, he said.
In December, he filed a complaint against the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, one of the schools named in the Supreme Court case. In it, he identified six scholarships and programs that he said discriminate against both men and non-Black students and faculty.
The complaint includes photos from the school’s website showing 16 scholarship recipients, all of them Black.
A spokesman for UNC said the school is aware of the complaint but declined to comment.
“I think universities felt that they didn’t really have to enforce the law and became blind to it,” Perry said. “Then no one ever challenged them internally because the faculty, staff and students are afraid of retribution.”
