Black Student Enrollment Declines At Harvard, Princeton, Yale, And Other Prestigious Colleges Two Years After Affirmative Action Was Reversed
The impact of the reversal of affirmative action is proving to be harmful for Black students.
Black Student Enrollment Declines
In June 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court banned affirmative action in college admissions, meaning race-based admissions could no longer be considered in college decisions.
Two years later, data reveal the outcome of that decision. AP News reports that enrollment data from 20 colleges show a decline in the enrollment of Black students. Most of the colleges surveyed have a smaller population of Black students than in Fall 2023, with some campuses logging Black students as low as 2% of their first-year class.
The study included Columbia University, Harvard University, Emory University, Yale University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Smith College, Amherst College, Haverford College, Carleton College, Swarthmore College, Wellesley College, Tulane University, Williams College, Cornell University, Colgate University, Bates College, University of Virginia, California Institute of Technology, University of Southern California, and Princeton University. Princeton experienced a 5% decline in Black student enrollment, its lowest since 1968, notes AP News.
Harvard University, Columbia University, and Amherst College showed the sharpest decline.
Smith College was the only higher learning institution to show increased enrollment for Black students, while Tulane University’s stats remained the same.
“If this trend continues, in three years this campus will be as Black as it was in the Civil Rights era,” Princeton University sophomore Christopher Quire, a member of the campus’ Black Student Union, said, according to the outlet.
“It feels like tying our feet together and telling us to restart,” Quire continued.
Mounting pressures on higher learning institutions have also come from the Trump administration, which has withheld funding for institutions that uphold diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and programs.
“Not too many institutions of higher education have stepped up and pushed back against the White House,” James Murphy, a director at the Education Reform Now said, per AP News.
“I do expect that there will be increased pressure to come up with the numbers that the Trump administration wants,” Murphy added.
Princeton University junior Kennedy Beal remains optimistic despite today’s current landscape.
“It feels like we’re being set back in time a little bit, and it’s heartbreaking to see. But at the same time, I still have faith that we will persevere. We will continue to demonstrate our excellence in these institutions,” Beal told AP News.
