A Potent Replacement for Affirmative Action

Sometimes an unwelcome shock can produce constructive reform. The Supreme Court’s decision to effectively end affirmative action has certainly been a shock, albeit an expected one. Over the past 40 years universities have built that legal principle and diversity into their DNA. Now the Court has told them in no uncertain terms that, however well-intentioned it might be, race-based decision-making violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Many universities will no doubt try to work around the Court’s decision. Indeed, a legion of academic bureaucrats has been drawing up ideas for doing just this for months, if not years. These include replacing standardized tests with subjective measures — which will make it impossible for Asian students, who were principal plaintiffs in the case against Harvard University — to prove that they are being discriminated against. For example, students might be asked how they would contribute to campus diversity in their personal statements. The convoluted nature of the admissions system would flummox potential watchdogs. “Will it become more opaque? Yes, it will have to,” says Danielle Ren Holley, the incoming president of Mount Holyoke College. “It’s a complex process, and this decision will make it even more complex.”