State issues guidance to address equity on college campuses

Two of the state's top elected officials are encouraging colleges and universities in Massachusetts to find new approaches to "advance diversity, break down barriers, and increase access for historically underrepresented groups" in light of the Supreme Court's June ruling that restricted the use of race by college administrators in admissions decisions.

Gov. Maura Healey and Attorney General Andrea Campbell issued joint guidance Monday for colleges admitting new students, calling on campuses to comply with the court's ruling while still advancing diversity efforts.

The guidelines say institutions can "look beyond traditional measures such as grades" to a more "holistic view" of a person, which could include race.

Asked by the News Service what this looks like in practice, Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler said many colleges and universities have added a question to their application where a student can discuss how their race impacted their life.

"A student can talk about any sort of circumstances in their life, including race, that have helped shape who they are. It might be related to an incident, it might be related to an 'aha!' moment in their lives. Students are allowed to talk about that in or rather, colleges are allowed to ask questions about that of students. And then students are free to go the distance in talking about whatever aspect they would like to, including race," Tutwiler said.

Still, the administration's guidance warns, "Institutions may continue to collect data based on race and ethnicity, and other aspects of identity, but institutions may not provide an advantage to an individual applicant solely and specifically on the basis of the data collected about their race."

“It is simply wrong to suggest that every student in Massachusetts or in this country begins from the same baseline. They don't, that's a fact,” Healey said at an event at UMass Boston on Monday. "It is also wrong to assume America provides a level playing field for all students. It doesn't; we don't; we never have. It's also wrong to believe that colleges and universities don't need to be intentional about how we increase diversity, equity and access."

The new guidelines come after the Supreme Court ruled that Harvard College and the University of North Carolina violated the Constitution by considering a student's race as a factor in admissions, effectively dismantling "affirmative action" which higher education had used for decades to diversify campuses and correct for systemic factors that put students of color at a disadvantage to their peers.

The majority opinion severely restricted admissions officers from considering race in their decisions, but did not completely ban it.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the majority opinion, stressed that his opinion should not "be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant's discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise."

The new guidance from the state emphasizes this distinction, saying institutions can consider a "factors such as cultural competencies, income level, first generation to attend college, neighborhood or community circumstances, disadvantages overcome, and the impact of an applicant's particular experiences on their academic achievement" as long as those factors are considered based on that student's "experiences as an individual" and "not on the basis of race."

Public and private colleges are also being encouraged to audit their existing admissions processes, to see if any part of their application process, such as application fees, early admissions plans, legacy preferences, testing requirements, athletic scholarships or other factors, have created barriers for historically underrepresented students.

"Today marks a powerful moment, it's a moment to recognize the unlimited talent and potential and the diverse young people across Massachusetts, and more than that, it's about how we invest in them because they are the future of our state," Healey said on Monday.

Within hours of the Supreme Court decision in June, Campbell released a statement that her office would work with the administration and higher education institutions to examine other ways "to remove unnecessary barriers to entry" that students of color face.

Also in June, representatives from public and private colleges and universities around the state, as well as from the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts, signed onto a joint statement with the administration in response to the court's decision.

"Massachusetts will always be welcoming and inclusive of students of color and students historically underrepresented in higher education. Today’s Supreme Court decision overturns decades of settled law. In the Commonwealth, our values and our commitment to progress and continued representation in education remain unshakable," the June 29 statement said. "We want to make sure that students of color, LGBTQ+ students, first generation students, and all students historically underrepresented in higher education feel welcomed and valued at our colleges and universities. Today’s decision, while disappointing, will not change our commitment to these students."

Healey said Monday that the new guidance is the result of work done by an Advisory Council for the Advancement of Representation, which they brought together "in anticipation" of the court's decision.

Other recommendations include that schools make "special efforts" to reach particular groups in recruiting new students.

"As indicated by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education in their August 14, 2023 guidance, institutions do not have to ignore race when identifying prospective students for outreach and recruitment programs, provided such programs do not give targeted groups of students preference on the basis of racial status in and of itself and that all students have the same opportunity to apply and compete for admission," the guidelines say.

Under the new recommendations, campuses could work with community organizations that serve particular demographic groups to share information about the application process or programs that may be of particular interest to members of a particular racial group.

They also say that institutions of higher education could increase the number and types of high schools, organizations and regions that admissions officers visit during the recruiting season.

Asked Monday if there was any funding attached to the guidelines for expanded recruitment efforts, Executive Office of Education Communications Director Delaney Corcoran said there's state funding associated with certain college preparedness programs that K-12 programs can access at no cost. These programs include MEFA Pathway, the state's free online portal designed to help students in middle and high school plan their academic future, and the My Career and Academic Plan (McCAP) academic planning resource.

Corcoran said other college preparedness programs funded by the state, such as the early college and innovation career pathways, saw a significant increase in investment in this year's budget.

"And I would expect that, sort of, to go back to state funding increase, or at least have a look at what we can continue to increase next year as well," she said.

The guidelines focus in on K-12 schools, saying that relationship building and investments in middle and high schools could boost enrollment in higher education from schools with historically low college-going rates.

Practices may include partnering with specific schools to offer mentoring and other programing, sponsoring local, state and federally-funded college access programming, hosting Admissions Days at regional high schools, connecting students with financial aid advisors, designating a "high school liaison" at certain schools who meets with students and assists them in filling out applications and visiting colleges, offering tours on campus for local high school students and hosting "academic preview days" for local high school students to visit campuses.

As well as providing college and career planning resources, the guidance encourages districts to expand access to Advanced Placement dual enrollment or other advanced coursework and to offer Early College, which gives students the chance to take college courses and earn credits at no cost before they graduate high school.

"While this decision was a setback, I along with my team will not allow it to stand in the way of progress and moving forward to ensure the next generation of students actually have greater access to higher institutions and to all of the things that they envision for themselves," Campbell said Monday. "This particular decision, while it may have taken away some of our tools, I stressed to my team when it came out, it did not take away our toolbox."

After Healey and Campbell spoke Monday morning, Tutwiler led a panel with other education leaders on how to implement the guidelines, to a room of school leaders from both public and private colleges around the state.  The so-called "statewide convening" was closed to the press.

"I think we see that decision as a call to action," Tutwiler said in an interview with the News Service. "There's always been a commitment to diversity, but we see this as a scenario where we need to come together to ensure that there's broad representation across our colleges and universities in our state, that there are clear pathways from high school to college for all students. So we see this as a call to action."