When the U.S. Supreme Court ended the use of affirmative action in college admissions today, the news hit America’s campuses hard. At Pace University, where I’m president, nearly half of our undergraduates identify as students of color. About one in six is the first in their family to attend college. Because we are not among the sliver of American universities labeled “highly selective,” we do not need to use race-conscious admissions to achieve that kind of diversity. Our students are proud to be part of a generation of Americans who look and think differently than those who have come before.
But as our students have watched opinions from this court overturn or call into question matters their generation thought settled, matters fundamental to how they view themselves and how they thought their country viewed them, they’ve felt increasingly uncomfortable. It’s why nearly two-thirds of Americans under 30 hold an unfavorable view of the Supreme Court, according to a Pew survey last fall.
