(Daily Caller) The Biden administration urged colleges and universities on Monday to continue to racially discriminate in an effort to make their student body diverse, following the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that Harvard University and the University of North Carolina’s use of race-based admissions policies were unconstitutional, halting the practice across higher education institutions. The U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division released guidance encouraging universities to skirt the decision by weighing “ways a student’s background, including experiences linked to their race, have shaped their lives and the unique contributions they can make to campus.” (RELATED: Biden Official Casts Doubt On Ending Legacy Admissions After SCOTUS Ruling)
“For higher education to be an engine for equal opportunity, upward mobility, and global competitiveness, we need campus communities that reflect the beautiful diversity of our country,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “The resources issued by the Biden-Harris Administration today will provide college leaders with much-needed clarity on how they can lawfully promote and support diversity, and expand access to educational opportunity for all following the Supreme Court’s disappointing ruling on affirmative action.”
The guidance notes that through the admissions process, schools can consider how applicants’ backgrounds, such as their experiences with racial discrimination or the racial composition of their neighborhoods, can “position them to contribute to campus in unique ways.”
“For example, a university could consider an applicant’s explanation about what it means to him to be the first Black violinist in his city’s youth orchestra or an applicant’s account of overcoming prejudice when she transferred to a rural high school where she was the only student of South Asian descent,” the guidance states.
US President Joe Biden speaks about the US Supreme Court’s decision overruling student debt forgiveness as Education Secretary Miguel Cardona looks on in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on June 30, 2023. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Institutions are encouraged to partner with K-12 schools to create pathway programs, and may give preferential treatment to students in the program during the admissions process if they were admitted to the program based on non-racial criteria, the guidance states.
