LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday to forbid the use of race as a factor in college admissions will likely have greater impact on other states rather than Michigan, with the exception of private institutions. 

In a 6-3 decision, the High Court found that the race influenced admissions policies used by Harvard College and the University of North Carolina were invalid because they violated the equal protections afforded to citizens under the 14th amendment. 

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Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion that, for too long, universities have “concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin.”

“Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice,” he wrote. 

While Michigan changed its laws in the early 2000s through a constitutional amendment that restricted public universities from using race in admissions decisions, some public universities like University of Michigan have weighed in on the decision. 

“We remain firmly convinced that racial diversity is one of the many important components of a broadly diverse student body and an intellectually and culturally rich campus community,” U-M President Santa Ono and Provost Laurie McCauley said in a joint letter emailed to the university community on Thursday.

University leaders also added that the constitutional change “had disproportionate, negative impacts on the most underrepresented communities; race-neutral policies have been much less successful in significantly increasing enrollments of Black and Native American students.”

A constitutional law professor at the University of Michigan, Evan Caminker, also weighed in expressing concern for the future with likely less diversity. 

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“The lack of student body diversity will undermine both the quality of education and career preparedness for all students, given that research overwhelmingly shows that student diversity, including racial diversity, significantly improves the learning environment and helps all students prepare for a culturally diverse workforce and society,” he said. 

Rival public school, Michigan State University, also weighed in on the impact of the court decision. 

Kristine Bowman, both a professor of law and education policy at MSU, said that the ruling will “extend the ban on race-conscious admissions to Michigan’s 41 private institutions of higher education.”

One of the oldest of these institutions, Hillsdale College, responded to the recent Supreme Court decision and the solution that the college has used for more than a century. 

“Hillsdale found a simple solution to affirmative action 178 years ago; not discrimination against its students and instead valuing the merit of each individual,” Emily Stack Davis, Media and Public Relations for Hillsdale College said in an email. 

The institution founded in 1844, contained in its charter a strong stance on the principle of affirmative action forbidding, “discrimination based on race, religion, or sex, and became an early force for the abolition of slavery.” 

“In light of yesterday’s SCOTUS opinion, many social media exchanges have suggested that schools could continue to practice whatever admissions policies they’d like if they refused to take federal money—an enticement Hillsdale has always rejected,” Davis said in an email, “Hillsdale has never submitted its students to the degrading practice of being counted by race and, since its founding in 1844, it has admitted students of any color, sex, race, or creed—before Harvard, which took 211 years after its founding to admit its first black student, and Princeton, which didn’t admit its first back student until 100 years after that (1947)!” 

In addition to holding the title for first college to oppose race based admission according to the college, it was also the second college in the nation to grant four-year liberal arts degrees to women.

For a complete articulation of the Supreme Court opinion and findings, see here.