Senior Alexi Knight, a white student from Maine, said the diversity on Bates’ campus has provided her with important learning opportunities she didn’t have growing up in South Paris, which is 96 percent white and has no Black people, according to the 2021 Census. “If you don’t acknowledge race you don’t acknowledge the historic setbacks that people of color have faced,” Neal said. Kara Neal, 19, a sophomore at Bates, is a first-generation college student. All those things, Howard said, largely benefit affluent, white students because race, social class and privilege are so deeply connected. In addition to academic achievement and race, things like legacy status, standardized test scores, athletic ability, extracurriculars and the need for financial aid are considered. “If the court overturns affirmative action it will undoubtedly hinder colleges trying to make their schools more diverse.” Howard said this is likely to be especially true for highly selective schools like Colby, Bates and Bowdoin.Īt Colby, which for the class of 2026 admitted 7% of those who applied, many factors go into the admissions process. “Of course the Supreme Court hasn’t ruled yet, but the writing is on the wall,” said Adam Howard, a Colby professor who studies social class in education. For example, in 2001 only 7% of the students at Bates were people of color.Įxperts say that if the Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action it would result in fewer students of color attending institutions of higher education, especially the elite colleges and universities that often serve as conduits to opportunities at the highest levels of U.S. At Colby College in Waterville and Bowdoin College in Brunswick, 29% and 33% of the students, respectively, identify as people of color, according to the schools’ websites.Īll three schools significantly increased their diversity over the past few decades. Maine’s other elite private schools have similar levels of diversity. Under affirmative action, race can’t be the sole consideration influencing a school’s admissions decision, but it must be looked at alongside other factors, including academic achievement, extracurricular activities and athletics. Race-based affirmative action allows schools to consider race as one of many factors when reviewing an individual for acceptance. “Other students of color might not be here either.” “Without affirmative action, I might not be here at Bates,” Gonzalez said. But the impending decision is fueling concerns at Maine’s elite private colleges, including among students at Bates College who worry that the loss of affirmative action would lead to fewer students of color at their school in Lewiston.Įmily Gonzalez, who is Latina, is concerned that absent affirmative action it would be harder to advance diversity at schools like hers and that schools across the country would lose an important tool for giving opportunities to people from marginalized groups and bringing people from different backgrounds together. colleges and universities until the Supreme Court rules on the issue, which likely won’t be until the end of the term in June or July. It won’t be clear how overturning affirmative action would impact U.S. Experts expect the court, based on the conservative supermajority’s line of questioning, to restrict or even eliminate affirmative action, also known as race-conscious admissions. Supreme Court listened to oral arguments in two affirmative action cases challenging admissions policies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard University. American Indian/Alaska Native: 93 (0.8%).Total full- and part-time enrollment fall 2022: 11,571.Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander: 0 (0%).Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander: 2 (0.1%). American Indian/Alaska Native: 4 (0.2%).Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander: 3 (0.2%).American Indian/Alaska Native: 2 (0.1%).Maine college and university demographics
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