The recent Supreme Court ruling against race-conscious admissions practices at universities like Harvard and UNC Chapel Hill has prompted the University of Missouri System to discontinue using race or ethnicity as a factor in scholarships.
The school says that they will still honor scholarships given before the decision but will drop “race-based standards” from this point forward.
“Those practices will be discontinued, and we will abide by the new Supreme Court ruling concerning legal standards that applies to race-based admissions and race-based scholarships,” said the university in a press release. “UM universities will honor our financial aid commitments that have already been awarded to our returning and incoming students. These awards were lawfully issued under previous Supreme Court and U.S. Department of Education interpretations.”
The decision comes after a directive from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
“That means institutions subject to the U.S. Constitution or Title VI must immediately cease their practice of using race-based standards to make decisions about things like admissions, scholarships, programs, and employment.”
Though the case decided by the Supreme Court was not explicitly about race-based scholarships or financial aid many experts believe it may apply and that will be the next legal battleground.
[…] Affirmative action as most people have come to know it, is all but dead in higher education but that doesn’t mean the debate will end. Schools with a desire to have a diverse cohort may be tempted to adopt other policies that have been proven to diversify campus. Using proxies like geography and not requiring an SAT or ACT are popular options in that regard. Scholarships based on race may also be impacted. The ruling is not particularly clear about scholarships but some states have already interpreted it as a denial of race-based scholarships too. […]