Defenders Of Race-Based College Admissions Can’t Explain Its Educational Benefits

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday heard two cases challenging affirmative action-based admissions policies at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and Harvard University. The hearing was sometimes tense, and justices asked both sides tough questions. U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar and lawyers representing the two schools struggled to answer three key questions. 

Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), a group founded by activist Edward Blum, brought both lawsuits, alleging the race-based admissions policies at UNC and Harvard discriminate against white and Asian American applicants. Both schools and their defenders argued that “seeking the educational benefits of diversity is a compelling interest of the highest order and that universities may consider all aspects of an applicant’s background [including race] to build a thriving campus community.” 

What Is Diversity?

When Justice Clarence Thomas asked Ryan Park, North Carolina’s solicitor general who defends UNC, what diversity is, Park had difficulty coming up with a clear and concise definition other than saying it is about a “broadly diverse set of criteria that extends to all different backgrounds and perspectives and not solely limited to race.” When Justice Brett Kavanaugh queried Park whether UNC would consider an applicant’s religion under his diversity definition, Park admitted that, unlike the race question, there is no box to check for one’s religion on the application form.

Harvard’s lawyer, Seth Waxman, also acknowledged that Harvard’s holistic admission process doesn’t consider an applicant’s religious beliefs. Park and Waxman have difficulty defining diversity because they know it is politically correct to speak of diversity in broad terms. But in practice, the schools they represent care about only one diversity aspect: racial quotas.

Justice Neil Gorsuch pressed Park: “How do you distinguish between what this court has said is impermissible, a quota, with what you argue should be permissible going forward, which is diversity. How can you do diversity without taking account of numbers?” Park wasn’t able to provide a satisfactory answer other than insisting that UNC achieves “diversity” by looking at the individual applicant through its holistic process, which includes race as one of many factors.

Gorsuch responded that diversity had been used “as a subterfuge for racial quotas” on college campuses. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, proved Gorsuch was right when she warned the court that “a blanket ban on race-conscious admissions would cause racial diversity to plummet at many of our nation’s leading educational institutions.”

None of these diversity advocates were interested in discussing that college campuses, including at UNC and Harvard, lack intellectual and ideological diversity. For example, Harvard’s own survey shows that less than 2 percent of its faculty identifies as conservative. Alan Dershowitz, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, said in an interview that Harvard’s “emphasis on race and gender may well reduce academic diversity.”

Harvard is not diverse in many other ways too. Cameron Norris, attorney for SFFA, states that about “9 percent of incoming freshman at Harvard are conservatives. Harvard is 82 percent wealthy. There are 23 rich students for every one low-income student on campus.” Yet to those in charge of