It’s been more than a year since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling that struck down affirmative action in colleges and universities, and the consequences of that ruling have finally reached the surface.
Last August, the New York Times reported a significant dip in Black, Hispanic, Native American and Pacific Islander student enrollment in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) 2028 class. In some cases, such as the percentage of Black students, enrollment numbers plummeted from 15% to 5% in contrast with MIT’s 2027 class. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also saw only 7.8% in Black enrollments this fall, which pales in comparison to the 10.5% of Black first-year students of last fall, according to a UNC report. Similarly to MIT, UNC revealed sweeping drops in enrollment for Black and Indigenous students and people of color, with the exception of Asian-American students.
In spite of those drop-offs, UNLV has seen significant success that could position it as a model for diversity. In a statement immediately following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate race considerations in college admissions, UNLV officials said the ruling would not fundamentally impact the university’s open-access admission policy or its mission to champion inclusion and equality in its student body.
The school has visibly kept that word. UNLV consistently ranks among the top five most diverse universities for undergrads in the country, sharing that honor with campuses like Stanford and the University of San Francisco. But it recently celebrated another major milestone.
“UNLV welcomed our largest-ever enrollment this fall—which was driven by one of the most diverse first-year classes in our history,” UNLV President Keith E. Whitfield tells the Weekly. “This is reflective of our community’s rich diversity and a testament to dedicated staff and faculty who are committed to the success of every UNLV student. We will continue to promote a culture of belonging for all of our students, faculty and staff, and we’re proud to deliver a world-class education that both celebrates and serves students from all backgrounds.”
The Office of Decision Support reported a significantly diverse incoming class with 38.6% Hispanic, 16.8% Black and 3.5% Native American students enrolled.
“Urban research universities have a chance to step up like nobody’s business,” says Steven Nelson, associate professor of education policy and leadership at UNLV. “It provides an opening for us to take advantage of the students who would have ordinarily wanted to go to an Ivy League school, a public Ivy, who now will be staying closer to home for a variety of reasons.
“Four out of every five faculty members went to the same 20 schools. So even when you think about the idea of going to these select schools, most of us were trained by the same people,” he continues. “The same education you’re getting at [University of] Wisconsin-Madison is probably the education you’re getting at a UNLV. Now we have the opportunity to actually let people know that we are a legitimate research university, with renowned faculty members, and we’re doing it slightly differently.”
The desire to be in places where students feel welcome explains why enrollment at Historically Black College and Universities (HBCU), Hispanic-serving institutions and other minority institutions has also ballooned, Nelson says. “They want to see people on campus who look like them, and they want to be treated justly,” Nelson says. “No one is signing up to be ostracized and to be treated like a pariah.”
“When I went to Iowa for law school, I was the only Black male in my cohort,” he recalls. “I remember we were talking about slavery and how the Commerce Clause was crucial to getting rid of slavery, and someone literally turned around to me and said, ‘How did it feel to be a slave?’ … You don’t get those types of questions when you have a critical mass, because someone else would be outraged.”
Affirmative action was originally established in the 1960s to create equal opportunity for underrepresented and marginalized people. Many, however, view it as the opposite. Oftentimes diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and programs like affirmative action are seen as unfair; a means of advancing groups based on their skin color rather than their skills and qualifications. The term “token minority” is still thrown around, even though affirmative action applicants remain highly qualified.
This upended cry for equality by dismantling DEI initiatives has only spread since the Supreme Court’s June 2023 ruling. Now, organizations are questioning just how important DEI initiatives are across the board. This year, legislators introduced a “Dismantle DEI Act” bill that’s gaining traction. Walmart recently made headlines for rolling back its DEI policies, and the University of Michigan, once a champion of diversity, has announced it will no longer require diversity statements from faculty and potential hires.
Brittani Sterling, a social sciences and interdisciplinary studies librarian and assistant professor at UNLV, says the DEI acronym itself has been “semantically bleached” of its meaning. Some parts of it are applied, while others are completely ignored.
“D and I are easy to address, whether it’s universities, big business, government entities. But people have a real hard time being like, ‘This is what equity means.’ It means that if you are going to give people equal opportunities or give them an equal experience, that might mean getting them there in different ways, and that’s the part people don’t like,” says Sterling. “It’s almost like the E is holding it together. It’s the ampersand but people don’t want to actually acknowledge what it takes to do the E.”
As it continues to champion diversity on campus, UNLV has stepped forward in numerous ways. Its We Need to Talk series has brought community experts and faculty together to engage in open dialogues around topics like racism, education, criminal justice, Las Vegas’ LGBTQ+ history and more. It has held several student and faculty summits to continue these collaborative discussions. In 2021, UNLV also established the Equity Institute Online program to educate faculty and staff on core issues of DEI to better support students. And just this summer, UNLV’s Minority Serving Institution Task Force launched a survey to gain insight into how specific groups and underserved individuals are being served by initiatives on campus and what needs to be improved.
Sterling says she entered librarianship fully realizing the field wasn’t diverse. Around 87% of librarians are white, with Black people accounting for less than 7%. Yet, she also knew her presence in that space mattered. Defying statistics to be a Black female librarian is something to aspire to. But more than anything, she hopes more marginalized students will aspire to be faculty in general.
“A thing we do talk about at UNLV a lot is making sure that students see faculty that look like them. What we don’t talk about is the challenge of getting faculty there. And this is why this decision is both troubling, but will have real consequences,” Sterling says. “If you can’t get students in the pipeline, you can’t get grad students. You can’t get grad students, you can’t get faculty.”
Diversifying UNLV’s faculty isn’t just the next step, it’s the natural step. Our country’s cultural makeup is changing. Without that embrace of diversity, “we stand to lose as a society,” Nelson says. “It sets us up for not fully engaging the changing demographics in this country and the changing perspectives in this country.”
“I think that’s the positive of not just UNLV, but these urban research universities,” Nelson says. “They may not be your UCLA or USC in prestige and endowment, but we are who we are, we serve who we serve, and we’re proud to do it.”
Click HERE to subscribe for free to the Weekly Fix, the digital edition of Las Vegas Weekly! Stay up to date with the latest on Las Vegas concerts, shows, restaurants, bars and more, sent directly to your inbox!