Biden administration urges colleges to pursue racial diversity without affirmative action

New guidance from the Biden administration on Monday urges colleges to use a range of strategies to promote racial diversity on campus after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in admissions. Students for Fair Admission, the group that brought the issue to the Supreme Court through lawsuits against Harvard and the University of North Carolina, sent a letter to 150 universities in July saying they must “take immediate steps to eliminate the use of race as a factor in admissions.” In its guidance, the Biden administration offers a range of policies colleges can use “to achieve a student body that is diverse across a range of factors, including race and ethnicity.” It also offers clarity on how colleges can consider race in the context of an applicant’s individual experience. The guidance offers examples of how colleges can “provide opportunities to assess how applicants’ individual backgrounds and attributes — including those related to their race.” “A university could consider an applicant’s explanation about what it means to him to be the first Black violinist in his city’s youth orchestra or an applicant’s account of overcoming prejudice when she transferred to a rural high school where she was the only student of South Asian descent,” according to the guidance. At the same time, the Justice and Education departments warned that they’re ready to investigate if schools fail to provide equal access to students of all races, adding that the administration “will vigorously enforce civil rights protections.” The guidance arrives as colleges work to avoid the type of diversity decline that has been seen in some states that previously ended affirmative action, including in California and Michigan.