Students see admissions' diversity impact since affirmative action repeal

UNC's 2024 admissions data released on Sept. 5 confirmed some community members' concerns that the 2023 Students for Fair Admissions Supreme Court case would impact diversity at UNC.

The 2023-24 year was the first University admissions cycle following the case. UNC acted as the public university represented in the case. The case ruled that affirmative action, or race-conscious admissions, can not be a factor in college admission cycles.

In fall 2024, UNC admitted fewer percentages of Black and African American; Hispanic, Latino or Latina; and American Indian or Alaska Native identifying students, with percentages of Black students in the class dropping around 25 percent from 2023.

Julian Taylor, a senior and executive member of the Affirmative Action Coalition at UNC-Chapel Hill, said “I've heard shared sentiment in the Black community that just by being on campus, you can feel that there are far fewer Black first-years.”

“The affirmative action ruling did exactly what we thought it would do,” Taylor said.

Rachelle Feldman, UNC vice provost for enrollment, said in a webinar that it's too soon to tell if affirmative action has affected admissions rates. 

After learning affirmative action would not apply to his admissions cycle, UNC first-year Joseph Moore III said he was concerned it would affect his applications.

Moore said he wished there were more people of color on campus, saying that he saw less and less people who looked like him on social media accounts for the class of 2028, as well as fewer posts on accounts for African American UNC students.

“It's hard to come to a university where I don't feel like I'm fully represented, where I have to go out of my way to find somebody who shares my race, who shares my experiences, who shares my lifestyle,” he said.

Alyse Levine, founder and CEO of Premium Prep College Counseling in Chapel Hill, formerly worked as an admissions counselor at Washington University in St. Louis. She said it never dawned on her that affirmative action would disappear.

“It felt like such a pillar of what work we were doing to create a more equitable and diverse community, so it really felt like the rug was being pulled out from under me when this decision was announced by SCOTUS last year,” she said.

In contrast to UNC, Duke University reported no percentage change in the enrollment of Black students from 2023 to 2024. Hispanic, Latino or Latina enrollment increased from 13 to 14 percent. Harvard University, the private university represented in SFFA case, saw a decrease in African American or Black student enrollment in their 2028 graduating class, similar to UNC.

Levine, whose daughter attends Washington University and son is a junior at UNC, said she personally believes it's sad her children are coming of age at a time when institutions may be less diverse.

“I think a lot of schools really are experimenting and trying to find ways within the law to still attract diverse students, focusing more on socioeconomic diversity [and] rural communities,” Levine said.

Moore said he wrote his main application essay about being mixed-race and choosing between white or Black on documents since kindergarten, now being unable to include his race at all.

“Instead of having to choose one or the other that was half right, now it's all incorrect,” he said.

Moore said he initially accepted admission to Howard University, a historically Black university, before rescinding his acceptance and committing to UNC a week later. Following a conversation with his mother, he said he decided to get out of his comfort zone by attending UNC after attending a more diverse high school in Raleigh.

UNC is a predominantly white institution, with 63.8 percent of the incoming class identifying as white or Caucasian, as well as 54.9 percent of undergraduate and 56.5 percent of graduate and professional students, based on data surrounding the overview of the student body in 2022.

Sarah Shell, a first-year from China Grove, North Carolina, said she wasn't very knowledgeable about the affirmative action changes because not many people around her talked about the subject.

“I do think it can be comforting to know that we’re accepted based on our achievements and not necessarily to fulfill a statistic, but I also know that one of the goals of UNC is to try and give people from different backgrounds, in different areas of the state and all different demographics an opportunity to be able to get a good education,” Shell said.

She said UNC is more diverse than her rural hometown, and her experience so far has helped her understand different worldviews.

Less than one year after the removal of affirmative action, the UNC Board of Governors repealed a policy to remove requirements for diversity and inclusion regulations across the UNC System. 

Moore said he thinks the SCOTUS decision gave the BOG the OK to shift to a time where diversity is not as important at UNC.

“It's definitely connected,” Moore said. “Affirmative action, if it had been around, I think we would still have the [University Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council] today.”

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