(Bloomberg) -- Duke University is expanding aid to students from North and South Carolina. Princeton is consulting its lawyers. And at historically Black colleges, officials are watching for an influx of students.
Across the halls of America's selective colleges and universities, administrators are dusting off contingency plans after the US Supreme Court effectively barred race as a factor in admissions. In arguing affirmative action programs violate the Constitution's equal protection clause, the justices removed a longstanding method for institutions to bolster campus diversity.
Considering race in admissions, a matter brought before the Supreme Court in 1978 and then again in 2003, is just one way colleges can ensure a range of backgrounds in their classrooms. Focusing on economic status is another approach, but its effectiveness in ensuring diversity has been questioned. Some justices have pointed to alternatives: Neil Gorsuch, in hearing arguments in October, suggested eliminating the “legacy” preferences given to athletes and the children of alumni and big-money donors. But colleges are so far mostly loath to take that option.
As universities decry the loss of a key tool to help them achieve their diversity goals, they must devise a new approach — and that will mean spending on outreach. While that may not seriously crimp the financial power of Ivy League colleges, which are flush with cash, smaller schools that are under unprecedented strain face a steep challenge to commit to diversity.
“It was a shortcut,” said Mitchell Chang, a professor and associate vice chancellor of equity, diversity and inclusion at UCLA. “And now it puts institutions in a position to have to do the harder work. They'll have to invest significantly more into recruiting.”
Read more: Affirmative Action's End Will Crush the Diversity Talent Pipeline
The high court justices Thursday ruled against Harvard College and the University of North Carolina. For now, schools grappling with next steps are highlighting their continued commitment to diversity.
“We write today to reaffirm the fundamental principle that deep and transformative teaching, learning, and research depend upon a community comprising people of many backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences,” said Harvard University in a statement signed by leaders from across the institution.
The school did not go into detail about future plans, but said that in the coming weeks and months the university “will determine how to preserve, consistent with the Court's new precedent, our essential values.”
Yale University's president Peter Salovey said in a statement he was “deeply troubled” as he considered the ruling and reaffirmed the school's “unwavering commitment to creating and sustaining a diverse and inclusive community.” The school will review its admissions policies to ensure they comply with the law.
Princeton has been preparing for the decision by seeking assistance and advice from legal counsel, said President Christopher Eisgruber in an emailed statement to the Princeton community.
“While today's decision will make our work more difficult, we will work vigorously to preserve — and, indeed, grow — the diversity of our community while fully respecting the law as announced today,” he said.
At Dartmouth, Provost David Kotz has been meeting with admissions deans across the university “to discuss how to comply with the ruling and adapt their holistic admissions processes to this new legal landscape,” President Sian Beilock said in a statement. The decision “in no way changes Dartmouth's fundamental commitment to building a diverse and welcoming community,” she said.
Clayton Rose, president of Bowdoin College in Maine, said in a statement the school will comply with the ruling but “will never back away from our commitment to build and sustain a truly diverse community.”
Duke is already preparing for an additional expense. Last week, it announced it was expanding its financial aid, providing full-tuition grants for undergraduate students from North and South Carolina whose family incomes are $150,000 or less. For students who are residents in those states with family income of $65,000 or less, Duke will offer assistance for housing, meals and other expenses.
“By providing even more equitable access to a Duke education, and ensuring students have the resources they need to truly thrive while here at Duke, we will also make our campus community stronger,” said President Vincent Price in a statement. The expansion will be funded by university resources, and is expected to increase grant assistance by about $2 million for the upcoming academic year. The university also said it anticipates investing an additional $6 million to $7 million per year to provide increased assistance over the next five years.
States that had already banned affirmative action programs illustrate what kinds of costs might be in store for colleges nationwide.
California's ban went into full effect for the freshman class of 1998. There, enrollees from underrepresented minority groups dropped by 50% or more at the University of California's most selective campuses. Race-neutral alternatives, including outreach programs aimed at students from low-income families, have cost the system more than $500 million, the president and chancellors said in a brief to the Supreme Court.
Racial-preference supporters like Lee Bollinger, a former president of Columbia University and the University of Michigan, say targeting socioeconomic status is a poor workaround.
“Most people in any category of the socioeconomic spectrum are White,” he said. “So you really can't achieve diversity through these other means.”
Still, affirmative action has fallen out of favor with many Americans. A Pew Research Center survey published in June showed half of adults say race and ethnicity should not be a factor in college admissions decisions, while one-third approve of the measure.
Admissions “should also be going further than race blind, it should be class blind and blind to any other form of favoritism, including the status of one's parents as alumni,” said Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars.
The “legacy” preferences singled out by Gorsuch have proved sticky. So far, only a few colleges have eliminated the practice of admitting such students, including Johns Hopkins and Amherst, both of which have multibillion-dollar endowments. It could be a tougher sell at smaller, less-wealthy schools.
Meanwhile, HBCUs have an opportunity to recruit and enroll higher achieving Black students who might not have previously considered attending such a school, Braque Talley, vice president for student affairs at Alabama A&M University, said before the decision.
“This decision will be another feather in HBCU's hats,” he said.
(Updates with Dartmouth response in 12th paragraph.)
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