Governors State University will maintain its diverse student population and commitment to diversity despite last month’s landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling gutting affirmative action in college admissions, officials say.
“We have a very rich diverse population,” said Joi Patterson, chief diversity officer at University Park-based Governors State. “We are an emerging Hispanic serving institution, an emerging predominantly Black institution. We are a federally designated minority serving institution. We have over 500 international students. That outcome will not change.”
What will change is the university’s application process and how it goes about collecting racial and ethnic data, she said.
Following the ruling, Governors State President Cheryl Green issued a statement noting the university “hasn’t relied on race-based admissions practices yet has built and sustained an extraordinarily diverse student body.”
For those institutions that may have relied on race as one factor to increase their student body’s diversity, the decision is a disappointment, she said.
“GSU shares in this disappointment but remains steadfast in its commitment to sustaining its diverse student body and its commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging,” Green said in the statement.
The ruling doesn’t affect anything the university does before admissions or after, Patterson said.
“Before admissions we recruit heavily in diverse areas to align to our mission,” she said. “We will continue those recruitment efforts in those spaces, so we will still attract the same students.”
Patterson said the university also has initiatives to help with student retention, including scholarships to support students who may be marginalized for any reason.
As for changes in the admissions process, she said the university will no longer be able to collect race-based ethnicity data during that process.
“Where we collect that data may be post admissions as opposed to during admissions,” she said.
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Student reporting of that information will continue to be optional.
Black students make up 40% of the student body at Governors State, and Hispanic students account for 19%, according to the university. The U.S. Department of Education has recognized Governors State as a minority-serving institution, meaning it is an accredited academic institution where enrollment of a single minority or a combination of minorities exceeds 50% of the total enrollment. Those results have been achieved without quotas.
“In our admissions process now, we do not have a quota for how many people we want per ethnic group,” Patterson said. “We don’t look at applications by race to select students in any form or fashion.”
The Supreme Court affirmative action ruling grew out of cases involving affirmative action admissions plans at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but affects colleges across the country.
In the aftermath of the decision, Patterson expects minority enrollment numbers to fall at other universities if they don’t take appropriate action. There are nine states that had already banned affirmative action in higher education, she said.
“I anticipate that we will see the same things that occurred with those nine states,” she said. “After they banned affirmative action in higher education, they saw a decline of minority students.”
She expected the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down affirmative action.
“I see it as a step back, but I also see it as an opportunity that maybe we need to change the conversation to marginalized students, to put more focus on marginalization as opposed to race and ethnicity,” Patterson said.
That would take into account marginalized white students who face major barriers and continue to take into account people of color, whom marginalization affects more than anyone else, she explained. She stressed the continuing need for support systems that tackle barriers that prevent students from being successful.
Universities must be “intentional” to be successful in recruiting and retaining diverse students, she stressed. In addition to Governors State, she pointed to and commended Northwestern University as a positive example of that.
This spring ahead of the ruling, Northwestern University President Michael Schill put out a strong statement in support of diversity and inclusion and noted when the class of 2027 arrives in the fall, it will be the most diverse group of undergraduates ever to enroll at Northwestern. He attributed that to “intentional institutional strategy and the individual hard work of faculty, students and staff.”
As part of that strategy, Schill said Northwestern holistically reviews all student applications and considers diversity of experiences, circumstances and backgrounds. It has a temporary test-optional admissions policy, outreach and access initiatives to reach diverse populations and partnerships and pathways with more than 1,500 community-based organizations. It also has a regional recruitment strategy that focuses on high schools that graduate diverse populations and subsidized travel for students from underrepresented groups, he said.
At the graduate level, Northwestern partners with minority serving institutions and national organizations that educate and identify diverse pools of potential students.
“We are dedicated to supporting and improving the experience of all students, and diversity is a critical component of a well-rounded education,” Schill stated. “Bringing together people of different backgrounds, viewpoints and experiences enables us to learn from one another and propels our research, arts and discovery to new levels, allowing us to have an even greater impact on the world.”
That’s a diversity lesson plan for other universities.
“If they are very intentional about having a diverse population, they can continue to achieve that,” Patterson said. “There’s a lot they can do in their recruitment efforts and to retain their students of color.”
Francine Knowles is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.