{"id":46328,"date":"2022-02-15T18:13:42","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T23:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/affirmative-action"},"modified":"2025-06-17T17:08:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T21:08:21","slug":"diversity-and-inclusion-in-higher-education","status":"publish","type":"issue","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/diversity-and-inclusion-in-higher-education","title":{"rendered":"Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education"},"parent":46673,"menu_order":3,"template":"","class_list":["post-46328","issue","type-issue","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"featured-image":210880,"intro":"The ACLU Racial Justice Program supports and advocates for admissions policies that increase access to underrepresented groups who face systemic barriers to higher education and acknowledge students\u2019 relevant experiences with race, and recognizes colleges and universities responsibility to open campuses to students of color, even after the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling against affirmative action.","what-you-need-to-know":[{"highlighted":"6%","description":"The share of Black freshmen at elite schools is virtually unchanged since 1980. Black students are just 6 percent of freshmen but 15 percent of college-age Americans."},{"highlighted":"7X ","description":"White college graduates have over seven times more wealth than Black college graduates."},{"highlighted":"37%","description":"Since Fall 2010, Native American enrollment has declined from 196,000 to 123,000, a 37 percent decrease. "}],"promo":{"description":"","button":"","url":""},"faq":{"description":"","faq-items":[{"title":"What can colleges do to ensure they create opportunities for students of color in light of the recent Supreme Court decision effectively eliminating the use of affirmative action in college admissions?","content":"Affirmative action in college admissions has been an important tool, but it is not the only avenue for ensuring that educational opportunities are open to all<\/a>. In the absence of affirmative action, it is more important than ever that schools work to identify and remove inequitable barriers to higher education. At a minimum, schools must continue to comply with federal and state civil rights laws that require them to provide educational opportunities on an equal basis. They can achieve this by ensuring that policies and practices do not unnecessarily limit opportunities for people on the basis of race or ethnicity (or other protected characteristics, including disability, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity), and by ensuring that school climate enables all students to access and engage with educational opportunities."},{"title":"How can colleges work to create and foster diverse and equitable campuses?","content":"Creating a campus environment where students feel they belong and can fully engage academically is important to student recruitment and to students\u2019 success once enrolled. This can include making classroom teaching methods more fair and inclusive; providing curriculum, programs, and activities that speak to students\u2019 diverse interests and lived experiences; reforming programs intended to fill K-12 learning gaps; removing financial obstacles to academic success; addressing bias in advising; meeting students\u2019 basic needs for food, housing, and transportation; and supporting the needs of parenting students."}]},"featured-stories":[{"image":133861,"title":"Moving Beyond the Supreme Court\u2019s Affirmative Action Rulings","content-type":"news_and_commentary","last-updated":null,"description":"The work to ensure educational opportunities for people of color continues, despite the court\u2019s decision. ","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/racial-justice\/moving-beyond-the-supreme-courts-affirmative-action-rulings"}],"latest-stories":[{"image":133671,"title":"Special Edition: The Supreme Court Overturns Affirmative Action","type":"podcast","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/podcast\/special-edition-the-supreme-court-overturns-affirmative-action"},{"image":40279,"title":"Student Debt is a Racial Justice Issue. Here\u2019s What President Biden Can Do to Help.","type":"news_and_commentary","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/racial-justice\/student-debt-is-a-racial-justice-issue-heres-what-president-biden-can-do-to-help"}],"whats-at-stake":{"title":"What's at Stake","description":"Our nation\u2019s future as a thriving multiracial democracy depends on students having the freedom and opportunity to learn, work together, and understand what unites us. The Supreme Court\u2019s decision to restrict the consideration of race in admissions processes does not change the responsibility of colleges and universities to increase educational opportunities for students across all races and ethnicities and to create thriving campuses that include people from all backgrounds.\r\n\r\nColleges and university systems must remain committed to examining and revising existing policies to ensure every student gets a fair shot, including eliminating the use of standardized test scores in admissions, increasing guaranteed financial support, and developing robust middle and high school pipelines in underserved communities. We must invest in pathways that increase access to opportunities for students across all races and ethnicities, and address discrimination and systemic racial inequalities that persist. The ACLU is committed to challenging unconstitutional disciplinary policies that disparately target students of color and infringe on their right to a safe learning environment."},"actions":"","drupal-id":243,"is_hidden_issue":""},"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The ACLU Racial Justice Program supports and advocates for admissions policies that increase access to underrepresented groups who face systemic barriers to higher education and acknowledge students\u2019 relevant experiences with race, and recognizes colleges and universities responsibility to open campuses to students of color, even after the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling against affirmative action.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education | American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ACLU Racial Justice Program supports and advocates for admissions policies that increase access to underrepresented groups who face systemic barriers to higher education and acknowledge students\u2019 relevant experiences with race, and recognizes colleges and universities responsibility to open campuses to students of color, even after the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling against affirmative action.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/diversity-and-inclusion-in-higher-education\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-17T21:08:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/diversity-and-inclusion-in-higher-education\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/diversity-and-inclusion-in-higher-education\",\"name\":\"Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education | American Civil Liberties Union\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-15T23:13:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-17T21:08:21+00:00\",\"description\":\"The ACLU Racial Justice Program supports and advocates for admissions policies that increase access to underrepresented groups who face systemic barriers to higher education and acknowledge students\u2019 relevant experiences with race, and recognizes colleges and universities responsibility to open campuses to students of color, even after the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling against affirmative action.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/diversity-and-inclusion-in-higher-education\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/\",\"name\":\"American Civil Liberties Union\",\"description\":\"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. 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