How "race-neutral" can universities really be?

It's Been a Minute

NPR

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🗓️ 19 March 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

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Summary

After the Supreme Court banned affirmative action in higher education, there was legitimate worry that Black and Hispanic students would be overlooked or otherwise shut out of college admissions. But the enrollment numbers are showing something different. In some cases, even without the aid of race-based decision making, Black and Hispanic enrollment either stayed the same or increased.

What does the data tell about the decisions admissions offices are making when thinking about demographics of their student body? And what does that process mean for future culture clashes about diversity and inclusion? NPR's Elissa Nadworny and labor economist Zach Bleemer join the show to get into the enigmatic world of college admissions and why higher education is still pushing for diversity in an anti-DEI minefield.

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Transcript

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0:26.4	Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.
0:43.8	Yeah. culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. A lot of people who call what you're talking about in that sense, like quote-unquote,
0:47.1	race-neutral alternatives for decision-making. What do you all think about that term,
0:52.1	race-neutral alternatives. Zach shaking his head.
0:56.5	It's worth thinking a little bit about where this term is coming from.
1:01.9	After the Supreme Court banned affirmative action in 2023, many have been curious to see how
1:07.8	the ruling would affect college admissions, particularly as it pertains to race.
1:12.7	The worry was, okay, you get rid of programs that used race in admissions, then you're going to see
1:17.9	the percentage of black students, the percentage of Hispanic students go down and the number of
1:24.2	white students go up. But that didn't happen.
1:28.3	Not exactly.
1:32.1	What we've seen in states that have banned affirmative action is that some schools have basically no effect in terms of their black and Hispanic enrollment due to a cascade effect.
1:36.8	So UC Berkeley doesn't have an affirmative action program.
1:40.1	They might not get into Berkeley, but they're still going to go to college somewhere.
1:44.3	And so if you look at the least selective schools, they actually gain in black and Hispanic enrollment.
1:50.1	Now, some of this was already in the works.
1:52.8	For example, places like Yale University have been steadily increasing their black and Latino student enrollment for years.
1:59.5	And while there has been some expected decline at
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