Yale University has promised to stop using race as a factor in offering admission or financial aid as the school moves to comply with this summer’s Supreme Court ruling.
Not only are admissions officers ordered not to consider race, but also the school said it would take “technological steps” to ensure that the officers don’t have access to race check-box data, nor would the admissions office run any reports on the racial makeup of the incoming class while the process is underway.
The school agreed to the steps as part of a deal with Students for Fair Admissions, the organization that successfully sued to strike down the race-based affirmative action policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.
As part of the deal, SFFA and Yale agreed to dismiss a lawsuit that was filed in 2021 and was on hold while the Supreme Court decided the Harvard and UNC cases.
Yale, in a letter to the public, said its admissions policy will rely on a “whole-person review.”
Applicants will now be asked to answer one of three essay questions that prompt them to talk about a personal experience, a community they feel connected to, or a time they discussed an issue with someone who held an opposing view.
The school said it expects the questions will “invite students from all backgrounds” to talk about themselves and their formation.
That seems to be an effort to take up Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s olive branch in June’s ruling.
Writing for the six-justice majority, the chief justice said schools cannot categorically give an advantage to all members of a particular race or ethnicity. But he said schools can consider individual students’ own experience with race or ethnicity as a factor in their lives, “be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise.”
“A benefit to a student who overcame racial discrimination, for example, must be tied to that student’s courage and determination,” the chief justice wrote. “In other words, the student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual—not on the basis of race.”
Yale also said this week that it will start using geographic data to guess an applicant’s economic mobility score. That information will be used to try to increase enrollment for lower-income students.
The school said it’s already been working to boost enrollment of first-generation students and Pell Grant-eligible students.
And Yale celebrated its current levels of racial and ethnic diversity, saying it has a historically high number of “students who identify as people of color.”
“The Supreme Court’s ruling changed the interpretation of the law, but it did not change our community’s values,” the school said.
Yale’s moves could set a standard for other schools looking to come into compliance with the high court’s decision.
Edward Blum, who leads SFFA, said in a statement that he was “satisfied, for now, that Yale’s new admissions policies comport with the opinion.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.