New Article: Peter Dreier, Richard D. Kahlenberg, and Melvin L. Oliver, Wealth: The Last Path to Diversity at College After SCOTUS Strikes Down Affirmative Action, Slate, (Feb. 8, 2023). Excerpt below:
Most observers expect the Supreme Court to end racial preferences in college admissions sometime this spring following oral arguments this past October in two critical affirmative action cases. Given the looming decision, universities should already be looking at a variety of new paths to diversity that don’t rely on race in order to preserve important gains in racial diversity won over the years. These should include favoring economically disadvantaged students and ending unfair preferences for the children of wealthy alumni and donors. But an especially promising approach—not yet widely employed—is to provide an admissions boost to students from families that have low (or negative) levels of wealth.
Banning of racial preferences will require selective colleges and universities that are committed to racial diversity to think creatively about how to open the doors to economically disadvantaged students, who are rarely found on today’s campuses.
Poverty Law 