Affirmative Action is the consideration of a person’s background in the hiring and admission process regarding college as well as the job market. The idea originated during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and was codified by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965.
Officially part of Executive Order 11246, the law was created to ensure equal opportunity based on race, sex, religion, national origin and as President Johnson described it, “A vital tool in the struggle to provide all Americans with equal opportunities.”
Marginalized communities in higher education and the job market benefited greatly from this legislation. This benefit came at the expense of others. Despite having one applicant with better academic performance, the admission committee could reject someone solely because of their race. Many believed this was hypocritical, claiming it contradicted the idea of equal rights. The controversy came to a head in 2023 when, in a vote of 6-3, the Supreme Court ruled that Affirmative Action violated the Civil Rights Act and, therefore, was to be banned.
The law had bipartisan support, including from former President Richard Nixon and Lyndon B. Johnson, a Republican and Democrat, respectively. According to the Pew Research Center, Affirmative Action boosted minority admissions by nearly twenty percent. The impact was felt especially in elite institutions such as Harvard and Stanford, two historic institutions previously exclusively open to the wealthy elite and their children.
Marginalized groups almost immediately felt the impact. Before the introduction of Affirmative action and the Civil Rights Act, only twenty-three percent of black students graduated from high school, and college admission for Hispanics was so low there is no official data according to the Nation Center for Educational Statistics—just over three percent of those admitted before Affirmative Action finished college. With the introduction of Affirmative Action, there was a significant number shift. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the rate at which black students were accepted and graduated from college jumped by nearly ten percent, with a rise in Hispanic graduates as well. This upward trend has continued to the point where, as of 2020, half of all black high school graduates attend college, and the Hispanic college admittance rate has grown to nearly sixty percent.
For example, the effect of Affirmative Action can be seen at St. Benedict’s Prep (SBP). Before SBP school closed in 1972, it was predominantly white and boasted a high college admission rate. Following the reopening of the school in July of 1973, the college admission rate for SBP students dropped significantly when the students of color-to-white student ratio flipped. To this day, ninety-eight percent of SBP graduates pursue college after high school, with eighty-four percent finishing with a bachelor’s degree or higher according to the SBP website. Considering this statistic, the national college enrollment rate is only sixty-one percent according to the NCES, with the graduation rate being nearly the same. Assuming these stats are accurate, it would put SBP in the top ten percent of the country for college admissions despite being predominantly attended by minority students.
The law has been seen as controversial over the years, as shown in the case of Bakke v. Regents of University of California. In 1977, a Caucasian student with an exceptional academic record, named Allan Bakke, was rejected twice by the University of California Medical School at Davis. This was due to the program reserving sixteen spots for qualified minorities. Bakke sued the college, eventually leading to a Supreme Court ruling in his favor.
The ongoing discussion around Affirmative Action came to a head in 2022 when the Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), a group dedicated to promoting fair and unbiased college admissions, brought Harvard College to the Supreme Court. The SFFA argued that race-based admissions violated the Civil Rights Act due to the college exploiting the system to accept more white students. The Supreme Court ruled in the SFFA’s favor, agreeing that what Harvard had done was unconstitutional. Furthermore, this led to the complete outlawing of racially based admissions, with the Supreme Court ruling that colleges should look more towards socio-economic factors instead.
Inevitably, minority admissions will drop. Despite the case ending affirmative action being against a white student, the people suffering the most will be the minorities. According to Princeton University, “African American admission could be expected to drop from thirty-four percent to twelve percent, while the acceptance rate for Hispanics would be cut in half, from twenty-seven percent to thirteen.”
But many colleges are looking to find ways around the ban on race-based admissions, such as ZIP code tracing. The elimination of Affirmative Action will also de-emphasize the SAT and ACT. According to a member of the SBP Board of Trustees and Dean of Georgetown Law Center Bill Treanor, the most prominent things universities will look at now are college essays. Colleges will look to see if race and upbringing influenced an applicant’s character and future goals.
“It provided opportunities to people who look like me who would not have had a chance otherwise. It is saddening to see this get taken away.” Michael Bowe SY
Looking to the future, Treanor’s advice to SBP college hopefuls is this, “Colleges are looking for two things mainly on your application. Grit and drive. They want to know that you will perform well in their institution and the wider job market. The silver lining is that Benedict’s is the perfect school to hone those two things. The school is about picking people with the grit and drive to succeed and giving them the tools to use it.”
The Department of College Placement and Career Advancement is open to all St. Benedict’s students who need additional assistance navigating the repeal of Affirmative Action.
