How the Supreme Court ruling on race-based admissions could a ect Colorado students

BY JASON GONZALES CHALKBEAT COLORADO

Colorado’s colleges and universities will no longer be allowed to consider race when admitting students, after the nation’s high court recently ruled that admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina are unconstitutional.

Only a few Colorado schools factor race into their admissions decisions, including the University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado College and the University of Denver.

e Supreme Court decision to halt 45 years of colleges’ use of raceconscious admissions could reshape campuses here and nationwide.

e decision means the state’s most selective schools won’t be able to consider racial diversity as a factor in enrollment, which could limit the tools they use to balance their student bodies to be more re ective of states and the nation. It also could discourage students from applying to college and deter university o cials from addressing racial inequities on campus, according to experts.

Native American, Black and Hispanic students enroll in college at lower rates than their White and Asian peers.

Ben Ralston, Sachs Foundation president, said race-based admissions were created to rectify systemic inequities that had erected barriers to Black students and students of color. e Colorado Springs-based foundation supports Colorado’s Black communities, including by offering college scholarships.

“ e fact that the federal government is saying that historic inequity is something that they no longer want to address is just a clear signal to the students that we serve that those inequities are going to continue to persist throughout the course of their education and probably the rest of their lives,” Ralston said.

President Joe Biden said the ruling should not deter colleges from seeking to improve diversity. University administrators in Colorado said that they are working to understand how the ruling will a ect their admissions processes and that they’ll keep working to admit students from a range of backgrounds. at includes putting more weight on students’ personal experiences and removing barriers in the application process. e majority of Colorado’s public universities and community colleges do not consider race in their admissions decisions. Students of color go to those schools at higher rates than more selective schools but typically have fewer resources. at contributes to lower overall graduation rates. e high court’s decision exempted military academies, on the premise that they are not party to the case and have “potentially distinct interests” that were not considered in the court cases. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor called that distinction essentially arbitrary and said it shows that even the majority doesn’t believe the 14th Amendment prohibits all use of race in admissions.

“Excellence is not de ned by a test score, so this will force us to de ne excellence even better,” said Shanta Zimmer, senior associate dean for education at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Selective colleges typically have more nancial and student support resources that help students of color graduate at higher rates.

In admissions, selective colleges in Colorado largely consider the rigor of classes taken in high school, grade point average, application essays, recommendations, and geographic location. Colorado’s public schools do not consider scores from standardized tests like the ACT and SAT, but some private colleges do.

CU Boulder, Colorado College, the University of Denver and the U.S.

Air Force Academy treat academic performance and rigor as the most important factors in deciding whether to accept a student, but they do consider race as well.

CU Boulder, the state’s agship institution, is the only Colorado state university that considers race in admissions. Public universities in the state have tried to be more representative of the state’s residents — and, in turn, taxpayers who help pay for their operations.

CU Boulder is 65% White, 13% Hispanic and 2% Black, according to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. In contrast, Colorado’s K-12 population is just 51% White,

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