Abolishment of Affirmative Action and Effects on Universities

In 2023, the Supreme Court outlawed race as a factor for college admission, also known as affirmative action. Through a 6-3 vote, the Court held that North Carolina and Harvard violated the equal protection clause in the Constitution, as it allows for racial discrimination by government entities. In the opinion, the Court clarified that a student “must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual – not on the basis of race” Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action programs in college admissions - SCOTUSblogThis decision is in stark contrast with the 2003 case, Grutter v. Bolliger, which allowed the University of Michigan Law School to consider race as a factor while they attempted to diversify in ways “broader than race”. While permissible at the time, there were clear and narrow restrictions on how such factors could be considered.

The 2023 ruling was not the first challenge made to whether race has a place in university admissions. In such prior challenges, the grounds for allowing race have been that “a student body diversity is a compelling state interest that can justify the use of race in admission”- Sandra Day O’Connor. That being said, it has been understood that using racial preferences would not forever be required to further the interest of diversifying the student body.  

While some schools may have been deeply affected by this, the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa, declared that they have not been using race as a factor for admissions in over ten (10) years. Iowa universities say they will not be impacted by overturning of affirmative action (kcci.com)Rather than using race as a determining factor, the University of Iowa – as well as Iowa State and the University of Northern Iowa – use the Regent Admission Index.  

The Index was passed by the Board of Regents in 2006 and was implemented for the first time in 2009. When using the Index, rather than considering race, the Index creates a figure based on test scores, GPA, and number of high school classes completed when determining what student will or will not get accepted.

Iowa high school graduates who intend to pursue higher education must have a Regent Admission Index (RAI) score of at least 245 and take a minimum number of high school courses to qualify for automatic admission as freshmen to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Iowa, and to Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. Regent Admission Index | Iowa Board of Regents (iowaregents.edu). While the 2023 ruling may have significantly changed the admission process for some schools, it did not affect the approach that the University of Iowa was using and continues to use for admission.

As of June 2024, nearly one year after the Supreme Court put an end to affirmative action, various studies were completed in attempts to ascertain the effects of the decision. It has been determined, at this time, that the decision did not have a noticeable effect on the admission class and there were no observed meaningful deviations from the historical admission trends as it relates to race and ethnic groups. Common-App-Race-Ethnicity-SCOTUS-2024.pdf (commonapp.org).

That being said, there is very little data at this time to confirm what the true effects of the decision will be. As the years pass, there will be additional data to confirm if the 2023 ruling did change the makeup of the student bodies in higher education.