Iowa universities hope to foster diversity in the wake of affirmative-action ruling

As Iowa universities respond to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision banning affirmative action in admissions, the future of other diversity efforts in higher education remains uncertain, according to one legal expert.

The Supreme Court recently struck down affirmative-action policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, concluding they violated the 14th Amendment. The ruling has prompted some of Iowa’s private universities to commit to fostering a diverse and inclusive campus while ensuring they also comply with the law.

Despite seeing little need for a change in policies, one of Iowa’s private universities has already taken steps to ensure race is not a factor in admissions.

Luther College Vice President for Enrollment Management Karen Hunt said admissions counselors will no longer be able to see an applicant’s reported race on submitted documents. Prospective students are asked to indicate their race on applications for data gathering purposes.

“We’re not being told, like, we have to do that,” Hunt said. “It’s just that we’re taking that additional step to ensure that it’s not part of the decision making process.”

Hunt said private institutions in Iowa generally take a more holistic approach to admissions, and Luther mainly looks at academic preparation. In a written response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, Grinnell College President Anne Harris and Vice President for Enrollment Joseph Bagnoli, Jr. wrote that the college had been reviewing alternatives to considering race in admissions for the past year as the court prepared to make a decision on affirmative-action policies.

“As we chart a course following these decisions, we will be guided by our standards of academic excellence and our values of diversity, inclusion, and equity,” the letter stated. “We remain more committed than ever to being a College beholden to those principles and practices that foster a multi-racial democracy as we move forward in Grinnell’s educational mission.”

Drake University Associate Director of Communications Ashton Hockman said in a written statement that the university is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive learning environment through practices such as offering a test-optional admissions pathway, elevating its recruiting in diverse communities, and increasing the funding for needs-based aid.

“While time is needed to completely understand the full implications of the Supreme Court’s ruling and any impacts it will have on our admission process and the awarding of financial aid, the decision will not undermine our commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive community,” Hockman said in the statement.

Iowa’s public universities use the Regent Admission Index for admissions. A formula factors in a student’s ACT or SAT score, grade-point average, and the number of completed high school core courses, regents spokesman Josh Lehman told the Iowa Capital Dispatch. If the prospective students receive a score of 245 or higher, they are automatically admitted to any of the regent universities.

As for post-undergraduate programs, Lehman said the ruling will be reviewed to determine any possible impact on admissions.

When asked whether universities needs to worry about more than just admissions with the court’s ruling, Mark Kende said no — for now. Kende is the director of the Drake Constitutional Law Center and a professor of law at Drake University.

“Right now, it’s a ruling solely on admissions for students, and therefore, technically, one could argue that it’s not going to create any ramifications for other things,” Kende said. “Having said that, that’s probably a bit simplistic, and in fact, things could work in a different way.”

For those who follow the ruling to the letter, any programs other than admissions that take race into account are safe. However, Kende said, the outcome of this case could be used as ammunition for future litigation against institutions targeting certain populations through financial aid or other support.

Public and private universities across Iowa offer scholarships to students from underserved communities, which could eventually become a target of litigation by those who see the ruling as casting a negative light on other methods of drawing in a more diverse student body, such as race-specific scholarships.

“Programs designed just for one race, to give them a real sort of extra amount of money compared to people of another race, who were completely excluded from any eligibility for that program, could become more difficult or problematic,” Kende said. “But it doesn’t seem like it’s happening at a great scale right now.”

While he’s heard and read some opinions that this ruling won’t lead to more cases taking on diversity-focused recruitment and on-campus diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Kende said he isn’t so sure. Recruitment could be hard to tackle, as colleges don’t exclude certain races when trying to bring in students, but scholarships are a different matter.

“I’m a little more skeptical that while it doesn’t directly apply, it allows sort of the beginning of more — it’s kind of like the seed for a plant, a seed that might grow,” Kende said. “But for now, it seems like things are pretty safe.”

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