AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Students starting college at Massachusetts Institute of Technology this fall will be part of a class that looks pretty different compared to recent years. MIT says Black enrollment is way down, as is Latino enrollment, all because of last year's Supreme Court ruling ending affirmative action in college admissions. NPR correspondent Tovia Smith is following the story and joins us now. Hi, Tovia.
TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE: Hi there.
CHANG: OK, so tell us more about what this freshman class at MIT looks like.
SMITH: So heads up, there's a lot of numbers here.
CHANG: OK.
SMITH: But they all tell a very straightforward and stark story, and that is that since the Supreme Court ruled that colleges cannot consider race in admissions, just 5% of MIT's incoming students are Black. That number used to average around 13%. Hispanic enrollment is down to 11% from around 15. Native American and Pacific Islander numbers are also down. And on the other hand, Asian enrollment is up to 47% from around 41. And white enrollment is about the same as it's been.
CHANG: So interesting. And MIT is saying this is a direct result of the Supreme Court ruling?
SMITH: Yes. And they're saying we told you so, that is they say they warned that this decision would adversely impact some minority enrollment, and they're none too pleased. MIT officials declined to comment, except through prepared comments and a video from university president Sally Kornbluth. She says she cares deeply about diversity.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SALLY KORNBLUTH: That, to me, is something worth fighting very hard to preserve. So what are we going to do? Of course, we're going to follow the law, as we always have. Within that, we need to seek out new approaches.
SMITH: She mentioned expanding recruitment and outreach programs, as well as increasing financial aid. And they're brainstorming new ideas. But as MIT's head of admissions put it, there's no easy hack to solve for racial equality when they can no longer consider race.
CHANG: Exactly. Well, what are students telling you about how they're feeling about all of this?
SMITH: I spoke with Giuliana Cabrera Sanchez, who's an MIT senior and vice president of the Latino Cultural Center. She says her worst fears are coming true, both for students at MIT and also for the broader community.
GIULIANA CABRERA SANCHEZ: And if we just have fewer Black and Latino engineers or just in general students in higher education, we're losing a key aspect and perspective that impacts how we help our communities. And it's just really disheartening to see that we've worked on growing this community, and it's come so far. And now it seems like we're just, like, taking a step back.
CHANG: Well, Tovia, as we've been talking about the Supreme Court ruling from last year, have you heard from the people who brought that case?
SMITH: Yes. So by way of reminder, this all stems from a lawsuit against Harvard and the University of North Carolina. That lawsuit argued that affirmative action in admissions was reverse discrimination and particularly harmful to Asian American students. The lawsuit came from a group called Students for Fair Admissions. I contacted their head, Edward Blum, who offered only a written comment. He says, every student admitted to the class of 2028 at MIT will now know they were accepted only based on their outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements, not the color of their skin. We also reached out to some Asian students and professors from MIT, including some who supported the lawsuit, but we got multiple no comments.
CHANG: Well, just to be clear, the Supreme Court decision bars all schools, not just MIT, from considering race in admissions. So are we seeing the same declines at other schools?
SMITH: That's a good question. And I asked Jill Orcutt with the American Association of Collegiate Registrar and Admissions Officers, and she says, yes, other schools are seeing similar declines. So she says she is reminding schools that the Supreme Court said that it is OK for applicants to write about their race, and she is advising schools to make sure they're giving sufficient weight to student essays.
JILL ORCUTT: You know, they can't get points for their ethnicity, but they can get points for how race affected their life and experiences.
SMITH: But how much leeway schools will have in that regard remains to be tested, which it almost surely will be.
CHANG: Indeed. That is NPR's Tovia Smith. Thank you so much, Tovia.
SMITH: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
