Fewer Black and Hispanic students admitted in fall 2024 following affirmative action reversal

UNC reported lower numbers of Black and Hispanic students as part of the University’s admitted students in fall 2024 compared to data from last year.

The fall 2024 admissions cycle was the first to follow the 2023 Students for Fair Admissions Supreme Court case, which struck down affirmative action practices, prohibiting race-conscious admissions from the college admission process.

UNC was the public university represented in the case, along with Harvard University as the private university. SSFA filed separate lawsuits against both universities, saying they violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

According to information released by University Communications on Thursday, Black students make up 7.8 percent of of the incoming students, approximately a 25 percent decrease from the previous year, 10.5 percent.

Higher percentages of White or Caucasian, Asian and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander-identifying students make up the the admitted students in fall 2024 compared to fall 2023.

UNC Vice Provost of enrollment Rachelle Feldman said that it was “too soon” to see admission trends with only one year of data.

“We are committed to following the new law,” Feldman said in a public statement. “We are also committed to making sure students in all 100 counties from every population in our growing state feel encouraged to apply, have confidence in our affordability and know this is a place they feel welcome and can succeed.”

UNC Student Body President Jaleah Taylor said that when she spoke at the New Student Convocation and Black Student Convocation, she felt there were students missing. She said she noticed a "significant decrease" of students at the Black Student Convocation.

"It was mind blowing to me that, you know, you are actually seeing and witnessing the changes of the Supreme Court in person, and I just didn't think that it would be so visible," she said.

Taylor said that when she came first arrived at the University during discussions about Nikole Hannah Jones being granted tenure, she leaned on the Black community on campus.

"When you think about the perspective that minority students and Black students bring to to the classroom, is just a lot different than we see from our our white counterparts," Taylor said, saying that it may take a few years of the policy to see the full impact of the SSFA decision.

The University welcomed 5,624 new students out of over 73,000 applicants in fall 2024 admissions cycle. 4,608 of the new admits are from North Carolina and 1,016 are out-of-state or international students, approximately 81.9 percent compared to 18.1 percent. The students hail from 95 North Carolina counties, 50 states and the District of Columbia and 79 countries.

Feldman said in a webinar on Tuesday afternoon that the University does not have any quotas for people from different regions of the state. 

"We do look at whether students are from tier one, tier two or tier three counties, but we look a little more at their personal circumstance, and how well resourced is their high school, how well resourced is their community, did they have to work while they were in school -- qualities like that," she said.

Feldman said that the University does not have any concrete plans to change their approach to upcoming admissions cycles, but that UNC is always looking at how it conducts its admissions.

Taylor said she is in the process of working with University Admissions to make sure targeted outreach to low income communities is still a priority, and that she is sure it is.

"I think, like a lot of times, we see these different changes, and then, you know, we kind of go about our days. But this is definitely something that we we can't forget about as we're moving throughout the school year," she said.

University Desk Editor Ananya Cox contributed reporting to this story.

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