President Donald Trump is forcing higher education schools to share admissions data with the federal government to review signs of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The Trump Administration wants to stop colleges and universities from prioritizing applicants’ race over academics. However, pressuring institutions across the nation to justify admissions through data weakens holistic review and pushes schools toward a numbers-only approach that will ultimately result in a less diverse student body with fewer opportunities for underrepresented students.
Although a cut in international students lowers diversity in a classroom, even high schoolers from the same city can offer drastically alternative perspectives. For example, despite being from the same island of Manhattan, not all high school New Yorkers hoping to get accepted into Columbia University can statistically compete with another junior from The Dalton School on the Upper East Side.
On Aug. 7, Trump signed a presidential memorandum requiring colleges and universities to share their detailed admissions data with the U.S. Department of Education to demonstrate that race and diversity are not determining factors in a student’s acceptance letter.
After hundreds of millions in federal research funding were revoked from Brown University and Columbia this summer, the two Ivy league schools have agreed to disclose application data, including that of rejected students, in exchange for the return of federal funding.
This action poses a threat to classroom diversity and has long-term consequences for campuses, as it weakens representation of marginalized voices and creates a less inclusive environment for current and future students.
“We will not allow institutions to blight the dreams of students by presuming that their skin color matters more than their hard work and accomplishments. The Trump Administration will ensure that meritocracy and excellence once again characterize American higher education,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a Department of Education statement following Trump’s memorandum.
A holistic review of applicants is necessary because it considers more than numbers — numbers that can be influenced by wealth and privilege. Report cards and standardized testing results can sway drastically depending on access to resources such as private tutors and well-funded high schools.
“This is why we have recommendation letters. This is why we care if someone’s been on an athletic team [or] if they’re a cellist. Because we want to get a better picture of what those numbers mean,” Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education and former undersecretary of education, told NPR.
Without an all-encompassing student profile, pathways are limited for disadvantaged applicants. Researchers Ezekiel Dixon-Roman from the University of Pennsylvania and John Mcardle from the University of Southern California explained in their paper “Race, Poverty and SAT Scores.” They argued that wealthy students earn higher SAT scores compared to their low-income peers, and that gap grows twice as large when comparing Black students to white students.
The study “Race-Conscious Affirmative Action: What’s Next” done at Georgetown University on education and the workforce dictates that simply removing or weakening race-conscious admissions will almost certainly decrease student body diversity and lower representation for certain groups, especially Native American and Pacific Islander students.
When the federal government forces data disclosure, it also invites litigation and declines educational diversity initiatives. Programs designed to recruit or support students from under-marginalized communities may be scaled back or eliminated if schools fear they will be seen as discriminatory under federal scrutiny.
This stands in sharp contrast to the creation of the original CUNY SEEK program in the 1960s. At the time, City College’s student body was almost entirely wealthy and white because academic admission was based solely on statistics and a student’s potential was never considered. The SEEK program opened doors for students from working-class and underrepresented communities that did not have access to such high-level institutions before college.
If the most elite schools stop bringing together students with different backgrounds and experiences, they will lose the mix of ideas and perspectives that make for valuable learning. It won’t be fair if the government pushes for only grades and test scores to be considered upon applying because numbers alone can’t show who a student really is.
