Supreme Court ruling sparks concerns for those who oppose affirmative action ruling

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling struck down affirmative action in college admissions after the court found that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The ruling dictates that universities can no longer take race into consideration as a basis for admission.

The Supreme Court ruling came down to 6-3 for the North Carolina case and 6-2 for Harvard.

“Because Harvard’s and UNC’s admissions programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points, those admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause,” the Supreme Court’s dissent reads.

“At the same time, nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university. Many universities have for too long wrongly concluded that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned, but the color of their skin. This Nation’s constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”

Ann Brown, chair of the Alaska Republican Party, says the ruling will require universities to look deeper during the admissions process.

“The Supreme Court properly decided that reliance on the innate character of race as the deciding factor in college admissions is violative of the US Constitution. Colleges and universities must therefore more properly look to an applicant’s other qualities, such as ‘challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned’ when making admissions decisions,” Brown said.

Those who oppose the decision say it breaks down more than half a century of work and progress to provide minority students with more opportunities for success in college and after.

“The ladders were just kicked from under everybody,” Alaskan and college graduate Nathaniel Rivers said. “It feels like all the building steps that we have built over the years in regards of progress, African American progress — and not just African American, I want to make that clear — other people who are less looked upon in terms of whatever political stance they may be on.”

Rivers, who is a proud South Carolina State University alumni, calls his university, “the school of opportunity” —but says many students will be left out.

“It will impact them greatly, because some of those doors that are open right now today, those doors are closed,” Rivers says. “They are never going to be given the opportunity, and that is the key and essential word for me — opportunity. The opportunity is not going to be present itself,” Rivers argues.

The change will cause some universities to have to re-evaluate their admission process.

For students applying to schools with the University of Alaska school system, limited impact is excepted. The University of Alaska says their universities “each have their own admissions processes; none of them use race as a sole basis for determining admission,” but that they are “reviewing the Court’s decision and its impact on our admissions and programs but do not anticipate significant impacts to our processes.”

For Alaskans planning to leave the state for school who oppose the decisions, the decision sparks concerns.

“It will impact them greatly, because some of those doors that are open right now today, those doors are closed,” Rivers says. “They are never going to be given the opportunity, and that is the key and essential word for me — opportunity. The opportunity is not going to be present itself,” Rivers argues.

Alaska Black Caucus also states, it was disappointed in the decision. Their president and CEO Celeste Hodges Growden expressed her concerns in a statement.

“This ruling kicks open the door for more people with ‘privilege’ to be admitted into selective colleges. We will see more legacy applicants, students with access to test preparation services and applicants who come from wealthy families,” Hodges Growden said. “Until the playing field is leveled, we need a tool like affirmative action in place.”

Additional organizations — including Sen. Dan Sullivan and Sen. Lisa Murkowski — were contacted for comment, but have yet to reply.

This article may be updated to include additional information.

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