Supreme Court will decide on affirmative action this summer. What will happen in Utah?
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College sophomore Ta’Mariah Jenkins says she can tell when her peers at Utah State University expect her to be “the funny Black girl.” She sometimes sees people go out of their way to be friends with her just to hear her say something “out of pocket.”
“People have stereotypical ideas of how Black people should be or should act,” Jenkins said, “… when they don’t know us.”
Preconceived notions like this often result from a lack of exposure to people of different races. Char Niu, a Tongan student at the University of Utah, can attest to that phenomenon.
“I just think that when you naturally interact with people (of color), those biases or those internalized ‘isms’ — they start to dissipate because you’re just treating people like an individual,” Niu said.
The microaggressions that Jenkins and Niu face are just one of the reasons universities across the U.S. push for more diversity on campus. Diversity is proven to benefit everyone.
“There’s so much research to back the power of diversity in a room — whether it’s in a boardroom or a classroom, in a workroom, in a team locker room,” said Tara Ivie, associate vice president of inclusive excellence at Utah Valley University. “That diversity inherently increases the effectiveness and the success of those groups.”
Some colleges try to build a more diverse student body by prioritizing certain races in admissions decisions. But as the U.S. Supreme Court reviews the constitutionality of affirmative action, that may soon no longer be an option.
Related The cases for and against affirmative action
Nonprofit Students for Fair Admissions sued both Harvard University and the University of North Carolina for favoring applicants of certain races, saying the schools were in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fourteenth Amendment, respectively.
The Supreme Court will issue a ruling on the case this summer. After hearings last October, the majority of justices appeared open to ending the affirmative action precedent, The Washington Post reported.
If the court rules in favor of Students for Fair Admissions, college admissions processes could change across the U.S. Whether or not diversity at schools would change is up for debate.
Students for Fair Admissions argue that considering racial proxies like socioeconomic status would be just as effective in cultivating campus diversity. But as Justice Elena Kagan pointed out, race neutral alternatives may not be enough.
“Everybody would rather achieve all our racial diversity goals through race-neutral means. … The question is, when the race-neutral means don’t get you there, are you prevented from taking race into account?” Kagan said in the October hearing.
Seth P. Waxman, the lawyer representing Harvard, said in his oral argument that the amount of African American students admitted would go from 14% to 6% if Harvard were to stop considering race, suggesting that affirmative action is essential to diversity.
Most colleges in Utah do not consider race in admissions, so a Supreme Court decision against affirmative action will not likely have a direct effect on the diversity of student bodies in the Beehive State.
If Utah schools don’t enhance diversity through who they accept into the school, what other means do they use?
The University of Utah tries to build a more diverse student body through outreach rather than admissions.
“The U. routinely reaches out to students from historically under-represented domestic minority groups to encourage them to apply,” the school’s website reads. “We do this through work with high schools, community-based organizations and other civic organizations ensuring that the U. is always represented as a possible college choice for students.”
The university’s vice president of equity, diversity and inclusion, Mary Ann Villareal, emphasized her belief that diversity is “a fact,” and that real work is needed when it comes to equity and inclusion. She pointed to the division’s Strategy Council as a key instrument in accomplishing those goals.
“The four strategic areas of our plan are ensuring health equity, amplifying community engagement, fostering an inclusive climate, and ensuring belonging,” Villareal said.
She also talked about the university’s panel series “Reframing the Conversation” and Friday Forums as ways to open up discussion about racism on campus and at national levels — topics which are often difficult to talk about.
“So our job is to make us unafraid to talk about them,” Villareal said.
Niu said she thinks the university could benefit from more outreach targeted at high schoolers of color, “who didn’t think they had the opportunity to come here.”
Utah Valley University has open enrollment, so letting people in based on race is not an option. But Ivie, UVU’s associate vice president of inclusive excellence, says the school is still committed to making every student feel like they belong.
“Often especially historically marginalized populations are less likely to see themselves as college students or think that that’s a space for them,” she said. “And that’s a core theme at UVU — that education is for everyone.”
Ivie said the university works toward inclusion by offering scholarships, programs designed for each students’ unique situation and survey data to see how people are feeling in terms of inclusion.
Even if college admissions in Utah won’t be directly affected by a Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, Ivie suggests that the larger implications of the decision would matter to everyone.
“Any decision about affirmative action would impact people of color across the nation and that includes our students,” she said.
Villareal echoes that sentiment.
“The two cases that are being reviewed — will they have impact on us as an institution in terms of our admissions? No,” she said. “Do they have impact on us in terms of how we talk about it, the intent, how people understand the work that we do? Yes.”