A steep drop in the number of Black students in the Class of 2028 at Amherst College compared to the preceding year’s incoming class, and less racial diversity in the first-year class, is likely a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against affirmative action, according to college leaders.
“Other institutions have seen a similar impact, and all colleges and universities are evaluating the outcomes of this first admission cycle under the new legal standard,” reads a late August letter sent to the campus community by President Michael A. Elliott, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Matthew L. McGann, Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer Sheree M. Ohen, and Chief Student Affairs Officer and Dean of Students Angie Tissi-Gassoway.
“At Amherst, we will continue and deepen our ongoing efforts — in accordance with the law — to reach and recruit students from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences,” they write. “This process will take time, but we are very confident that we will continue to build a community that reflects the diversity of the world around us.”
The Supreme Court’s decision means that colleges and universities can no longer consider race on their applications.
Statistics for the federal reporting guidelines publicly posted to Amherst College’s website show that 3% of the 480 students in the Class of 2028 are Black or African American, compared to 11% of the 488 students in the Class of 2027. Similarly, the college saw a decline in domestic students of color, from 47% in the Class of 2027 to 38% in the Class of 2028.
The drops were not uniform, though, with Asian students actually increasing from 18% to 20%, but Hispanic/Latino students dropping from 12% to 8%, and multiracial students going down from 9% to 8%.
At Smith College, there was not as precipitous a drop in Black student enrollment as seen at Amherst. Using the same federal reporting guidelines, Smith is reporting that 4% of the 652 students in its Class of 2028 are Black, compared to 4.6% of the 649 students in the Class of 2027.
This year’s incoming class at Smith has 34% domestic students of color, with 9% Asian, 13% Hispanic/Latino and 8% two or more races, while last year’s incoming class had 35.7% domestic students of color, with 11% Asian, 13% Hispanic/Latino and 8% two or more races.
“Although last year’s Supreme Court decision made our work to enroll a diverse class challenging, and we still have more work to do, we were able to enroll a similar number of students of color as past years and more Pell-eligible students given Smith’s investment in financial aid and new recruitment programs,” said Joanna May, Smith’s vice president for enrollment. “Our relationships with college access organizations, such as QuestBridge and the Posse Foundation, as well as our full-need, no-loans financial aid packages, help make Smith accessible and affordable.”
Mount Holyoke didn’t have immediate information about its African American population in its new class of 532 first-year students, but under-represented minorities make up 20% of the class, down from 23% in the Class of 2027. Students of color overall, though, are 29% of the Class of 2028.
College President Danielle Holley this week told NBC News that the college understood the challenges it would have to confront in the new landscape, such as creating new outreach programs and application materials because demographic information that used to be in a student’s file “is now masked.”
At the University of Massachusetts, the Class of 2028 is considered the most diverse in the university’s history, with nearly 39% of its 5,350 members made up of African, Latino/Hispanic, Asian, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and Native American, or ALANA, students, and nearly 19% of the class being under-represented minority students, up from the 16.4% and 15.5% under-represented minorities the previous two years.
The precise number of Black students in the class, though, like at Mount Holyoke, wasn’t available, so it’s uncertain if they are facing the same situation as at Amherst College and MIT, which was the first college to notice the impact of the Supreme Court decision, with 5% of its enrollment in the Class of 2028 identifying as Black, compared to an average of 13% in recent years.
UMass spokesperson Melinda Rose said UMass took a proactive approach after the Supreme Court decision, understanding, like with other colleges and universities, that students of color would be less inclined to apply out of fear they would not be accepted.
“UMass Amherst admission staff redoubled their efforts to encourage prospective students and their families to submit applications,” Rose said. “As a result, the university saw an 11% increase in applications from ALANA and underrepresented populations.
“From there, the holistic review process that UMass Amherst has had in place for years, through which applicants are considered in an individualized context, worked to our advantage,” Rose continued.
Last fall, when 5,259 freshmen arrived on the UMass campus, the ALANA student numbers were slightly smaller, with 1,713, or 36.6%, of the 4,680 U.S. students. That year, the population included 194 Black students, or 11% of the students of color, while there were 814 Asians, 471 Hispanic/Latinos and 223 two or more races.
In fall 2022, 5,571 freshmen were in the UMass class, and ALANA students made up 1,808, or 36.5%, of the 4,957 U.S. students. That year, the population included 222 Black students, or 12% of the students of color, 866 Asians, 451 Hispanic/Latinos and 261 two or more races.
Hampshire College’s 285 new students arriving on campus this fall include 233 first-year students, 46 transfer students and six who are part of an international exchange. The college announced that 28% of the “first-years” identify as students of color, about the same as the 30% of students of color in the 262 first-year students admitted to Hampshire in fall 2023.
McGinn, at Amherst College, sent a separate letter explaining the college saw 13,743 applicants, up from 12,726 the previous year.
“This class is the first admitted to Amherst following last summer’s Supreme Court ruling curtailing the kind of whole-person review we have done here at Amherst for decades, and while the court’s decision changes the law, it does not change our values. Amherst College remains committed to recruiting, enrolling and supporting a diverse student body, in accordance with the law.”
“While we are privileged and fortunate to have more qualified applicants than we are able to admit and educate within our intentionally small student body, each student is admitted through careful, holistic consideration and with the intention of strengthening the community here at Amherst.”
Challengers to affirmative action who brought the federal lawsuits said the admission policies of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill discriminated against white and Asian American students. The Supreme Court then struck down race as a factor in college admissions, with the conservative-majority justices saying the practice was out of compliance with the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.