First-year courses provide insight into the impact of affirmative action law on universities

Some selective colleges are reporting a decline in the number of black students in their entering classes, the first time since a Supreme Court decision struck down affirmative action in higher education. At others, including Princeton and Yale, the share of black students has changed little.

Several institutions have also seen fluctuations in the number of Asian, Hispanic and Native American students, but the trends remain unclear. Experts and universities say it will take years to fully measure the impact of last year’s decision to ban race in admissions.

The end of affirmative action isn’t the only factor affecting the composition of freshman classes. Some schools are changing their standardized test requirements, increasing their importance. And the federal government’s botched rollout of a new financial aid form has complicated students’ decisions nationwide about where to go and whether to go to college.

“It’s very difficult to determine which policy change is affecting all of these changes in enrollment,” said Katharine Meyer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank. “The unsatisfactory answer is that it’s hard to know which one has the biggest impact.”

On Thursday, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reported a decline in enrollment among black, Hispanic and Native American students in its incoming class. Its approach to admissions has come under scrutiny because it was one of two universities, along with Harvard University, at the center of the Supreme Court case.

The black student population fell nearly 3 percentage points, to 7.8%, compared with UNC’s previous class. Hispanic student enrollment fell from 10.8% to 10.1%, while the incoming Native American population fell half a percentage point to 1.1%, according to the university. The incoming Asian student population increased one percentage point to 25.8%. The share of white students, at 63.8%, barely changed.

It’s “too early to see trends” stemming from the affirmative action decision, said Rachelle Feldman, UNC’s vice provost for enrollment. She cited delays in the federal student aid application process as another possible influence on the composition of the incoming class.

“We are committed to complying with the new law. We are also committed to ensuring that students from all 100 counties and populations across our growing state feel encouraged to apply, have confidence in our financial strength and know that this is a place where they feel welcome and can succeed,” Feldman said.

Some institutions reported sharp declines in the percentage of black students in their entering classes, including a drop from 15 percent to 5 percent at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and from 11 percent to 3 percent at Amherst College. At Tufts University, the decline in the share of black students was more moderate, from 7.3 percent to 4.7 percent. At Yale, the University of Virginia and Princeton, the year-over-year change was less than a percentage point.

Many institutions did not report applicant demographics, making it impossible to know whether fewer students of color applied or were admitted but chose not to enroll.

Changes in other demographic groups also didn’t follow a clear pattern. At MIT, for example, the percentage of Asian students rose from 40% to 47%, the percentage of Hispanic and Latino students rose from 16% to 11%, while the percentage of white students remained relatively unchanged. But at Yale, the percentage of Asian students fell from 30% to 24%. Yale’s white students rose from 42% to 46% of the class, and Hispanic and Latino students saw their percentage increase by a full percentage point.

Universities have adopted other strategies to preserve the diversity they see as essential to campus life.

JT Duck, dean of admissions at Tufts, said the school will work to expand its outreach and partnerships with community organizations to reach underrepresented, low-income and first-generation students. He cautioned against reading too much into year-to-year changes in enrollment.

“The results show that we have more work to do to ensure that talented students from all backgrounds, including those who are historically underrepresented at selective universities, have access to a Tufts education. And we are committed to doing that work, while respecting new legal constraints,” he said in an email. “We have already done a lot of work in this regard, and we look forward to doing even more.”

Feldman said UNC’s priorities are to provide substantial financial aid to low-income families, as well as to retain students through investments in undergraduate advising and other initiatives. She said no dramatic changes are planned in light of the new enrollment data.

The university wants to make sure that “anyone, regardless of their background, knows they can earn a place here,” she said at a news conference.

The sharp decline in students of color may impact how prospective students perceive schools, leading some to choose other universities where they might feel a stronger sense of community, said Mitchell Chang, a professor of higher education at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“If we fall below a certain threshold, people who feel they have a harder time developing a sense of belonging will choose to go elsewhere,” he said. That’s especially true at selective universities, where admitted students may have to choose between several top schools.

So far, the decline in underrepresented minority students is less severe than when states like Michigan and California banned affirmative action decades earlier, Meyer said. But since those bans, universities have developed more best practices for effective, race-neutral ways to recruit and enroll a diverse class, Meyer said.

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