American higher education is the envy of the world. When top students around the globe decide where to study, they come here. Our institutions of higher education make America better. At the same time they are training the scientists who will cure cancer, they are also teaching young people the responsibilities of democratic citizenship in an increasingly diverse and pluralistic society, at a time when pluralism is under attack by extremists.
One of the great challenges we face is ensuring that these institutions reflect the broad diversity of America’s communities. Throughout our history and still today, that has not been the case. And unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action will make it harder for colleges and universities to be what our country urgently needs them to be: engines of opportunity that propel us toward a more equal society.
Colleges have long had wide latitude to enroll diverse student bodies that help strengthen America’s pluralistic traditions. Admissions officers are charged with assembling a balanced class, not merely choosing individuals. And just as they seek to balance students by academic area — they want both liberal-arts students and science and engineering students — they also seek to obtain balance in a wide variety of other areas, including gender and geography.
Are we really going to prohibit schools from taking an applicant’s race or ethnicity into account when forming a freshman class, while permitting them to consider prospective students’ gender and geography — and also legacy status and athletic skills? That makes no sense. A student’s racial and ethnic background should never be the sole factor in an admissions decision. But to prohibit schools from considering it as one of many factors is wrong.
The Supreme Court decision doesn’t mean that diversity on campuses must suffer. It just means we must act more boldly. One way we can do that is by increasing financial aid — public and private — to increase need-blind admissions.
Five years ago, I made a gift to Johns Hopkins University ensuring that admissions there would be need-blind in perpetuity, which means that students’ ability to pay will never again reduce their chances of admission. This has enabled Hopkins to increasingly diversify its campus and guarantee that economic and social barriers do not stand in the way of outstanding students getting a college degree. That promise is at the heart of the American Dream, and increasing financial aid is one way we can help fulfill it — but it is not enough.
For years, Bloomberg Philanthropies has been working with the presidents of America’s leading colleges and universities to increase the diversity of their student bodies. We also help high-school students from backgrounds that are underrepresented on campuses apply, enroll and graduate from selective colleges. All that work now takes on even greater importance. Colleges and universities must increase their outreach and their commitment to enrolling more deserving students who might otherwise — because they don’t have the same level of support from their high schools or families — fall through the cracks.
The court’s decision cannot be an excuse for regression. It must be a rallying point for higher-education leaders to build student bodies that more fully reflect America’s communities — and our highest ideals.