On Thursday, June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against using the affirmative action approach at certain private and public colleges and universities. With a 6-3 ruling, the court has decided that the race of a student applying for college will not play a factor in deciding whether they are admitted or not.
The decision came from the Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College case and the Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina case. In these cases, the Court ruled that both institutions’ affirmative action programs, which are race-conscious, violate the Constitution, according to CBS News.
“Both programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping and lack meaningful endpoints,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who delivered the opinion of the Court, explained. “We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today.”
However, the Court said universities can still look at the effect the race of an applicant has on their life during the admissions process. “At the same time, as all parties agree, nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise,” Chief Roberts said.
Affirmative action is a process where universities look at an applicant’s race to consider admission, creating diversity, according to NBC News. Specifically, this has played a role in the admission of students of color.
This news from the Court has brought a lot of opinions from educators, the public, civic groups and organizations. Kathia Garcia, a youth programs manager at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), shared her concerns with CALÓ NEWS on this decision involving high school students and undocumented students.
“I am very concerned because I work with high school students and a lot of my students are seniors getting ready to apply this upcoming year for colleges and I know that they’re gonna have a lot of questions about it,” Garcia said. “I know that, as it is, for a lot of our undocumented youth, they already feel discouraged to go to college, so this decision came at a time where I’m worried that it’s going to increase that sense of hopelessness in our students.”
CHIRLA is a non-profit organization whose mission is to make the country inclusive of immigrants by advocating for policies and laws that benefit immigrants. The organization also provides services to immigrants, such as the high school program Garcia oversees in CHIRLA. In this program, 16 LA County high schools are provided leadership development opportunities and access to various college resources.
CALÓ NEWS recently interviewed Kathia Garcia of CHIRLA to discuss the Court’s decision on affirmative action and how this might affect Latino students.
Responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Kathia Garcia, a youth programs manager at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, provides help to undocumented students looking to apply for college. CHIRLA encourages any student of any color to advocate for immigrant youth.
KATHIA GARCIA, 31, GLENDALE, YOUTH PROGRAMS MANAGER AT THE COALITION FOR HUMANE IMMIGRANT RIGHTS, SHE/HER/HERS, MEXICANA
WHAT IS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION?
It’s a program that levels the playing field for students of color when they apply for college. It allows the universities and colleges to consider race when students come to them with their application, so that they understand a little bit more and consider the struggles of these students when it comes to their grades, their test scores, and all of that.
WHAT DOES THIS LANDMARK SUPREME COURT DECISION MEAN FOR LATINOS?
This is saying that colleges shouldn’t take [into consideration] or shouldn’t look at race as an obstacle when it comes to students. That they should ignore any obstacles around race. It is disheartening to know that this is happening because we know that our students of color go through all these obstacles. Because they’re students of color, they grow up in low-income areas. They don’t have the same resources, they don’t have the same amount of money to be able to get tutors, to be able to get into these programs that will help them get better grades, that will help them get better test scores. And so what the Supreme Court is telling these schools, saying, “Hey, if a student comes to you with lower test scores with bad grades or lower grades than an affluent student,” and let’s be honest, often it’s white people, “It’s probably because they just didn’t wanna work hard.” But it’s not because of all these other factors that maybe are going on in their lives, like poverty. Maybe they can’t afford tutors, maybe they have to work jobs and go to full-time school to be able to help their families. That’s something that a lot of affluent students don’t have to go through, so they’re in better mental health, they’re in better physical health for them to be able to take these test scores, this test, and take these classes and do better.
WHAT WILL BE THE IMPACT ON STUDENTS TRYING TO APPLY TO COLLEGE?
I think this will certainly hurt our students in terms of how many students get accepted to very competitive schools. If this continues, the path that we’re going [down], and it’s not looking good, then we can start probably seeing that less and less of our Latino students, low-income students of color, will be attending some of these big prestigious schools, whether it’s private or UCs, and that sucks. That’s disheartening. We want to ensure that our students get to those places, too, because we know that our students can get to more than community college.
HOW DO YOU SEE THIS DECISION PLAY OUT IN UNIVERSITIES? WILL IT AFFECT THE STUDENT BODY, CLUBS, ETC.?
I think we’re going to see less and less students of color that come from low-income areas maybe being accepted to these schools, the more competitive schools, whether it’s public or private universities. [There will be] less diversity in these campuses, which is not good.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN THINGS THAT PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THIS DECISION GOING FORWARD?
What people should know is that this is happening but there are also ways that we can push back and that we should push back. For students, especially educators, it is to keep encouraging students and pushing for another program that will install back affirmative action or help students bring equity to what is happening. We should keep encouraging students and fighting for their place in these prestigious and competitive schools.