Click here to listen to JAM Episode 45: Our Unwavering Commitment
Last week the Supreme Court delivered decisions in two related cases challenging race-conscious admissions in higher education. The decisions declared race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina unlawful under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The decision ended decades of practice in which universities have been able to consider an applicant’s race as one factor among many in a holistic admissions review process. While it is too soon to tell what the impact of this decision will be on the makeup of colleges and universities, the message it sends – that racial inequity is no longer an issue that colleges should be empowered to address – is troubling. More concerning, the historical evidence of what happened in the wake of the earlier decisions to dismantle affirmative action structures in California – a dramatic drop in the enrollment of BIPOC students in UC schools – highlights the importance for colleges and universities to find ways to continue enrolling a diverse student population.
While the implications for this decision remain unclear for K-12 private schools, Hillbrook is and will continue to be committed to building an intentionally diverse community. As universities and colleges have noted, we will, of course, comply with the law in our enrollment practices. And yet we will do everything within our power to continue to attract, enroll, and retain a diverse set of students and families. We know that the strongest academic programs are diverse programs. Full stop.
The decision also reaffirms our deep commitment to our Reach Beyond Scholars, students who will be the first in their family to attend colleges and universities. The Department of Labor notes that, “Students who are the first in their families to go to college, end poverty in their family lives forever.” And, as our valued partner organization Breakthrough Silicon Valley noted in the wake of this decision, “College degrees remain among the most powerful levers for promoting economic mobility. Equitable access to higher education must be part of the larger task of closing racial equity gaps facing communities of color in education, the workforce, health, and any number of additional facets of their experiences.”
At Hillbrook, we will continue to do all we can to promote our diversity, equity, inclusion, justice and action values, ensuring that we meet our vision for a diverse set of students each and every day and helping each of those students achieve their dreams and reach beyond themselves to make a difference in the world.