WILMINGTON, Del. — Entrando a un centro comunitario repleto de estudiantes de último año de secundaria, Atnre Alleyne tiene algunos consejos para la audiencia, miembros de la primera clase de solicitantes universitarios que serán influenciados por el fallo de la Corte Suprema del pasado junio que derribo las admisiones con conciencia racial.

“Hay que obtener buenas calificaciones, hay que encontrar una manera de hacer lo académico, pero también convertirse en líderes”, dijo Alleyne, el enérgico cofundador y director ejecutivo de TeenSHARP, una organización sin fines de lucro que prepara a estudiantes de entornos subrepresentados para la educación superior. “¡En sus escuelas, hagan algo! Luchen por la justicia social”.

A varios de los participantes de TeenSHARP reunidos ahí, que son predominantemente negros o hispanos, les preocupa que sus posibilidades de ingresar a escuelas de primer nivel hayan disminuido con la decisión del tribunal. Se preguntan qué decir en sus ensayos de admisión y qué tan cómodos se sentirán en campus que podrían volverse cada vez menos diversos.

En esta noche de otoño, Alleyne y su equipo responden preguntas de las docenas de estudiantes a quienes asesoran, sobre todo, desde plazos de aplicación temprana hasta qué escuelas tienen más probabilidades de otorgar becas y ayuda generosa financiera. El cambio en el panorama de admisiones solo ha aumentado la determinación del equipo de desarrollar una nueva generación de líderes, estudiantes que lucharán por que sus voces estén representadas en los campus y más adelante en el lugar de trabajo.

“Quiero que abran las puertas de estos lugares de una patada, para que regresen y abran más puertas”, dijo Alleyne.

Este objetivo lo comparten los ex alumnos del programa que Alleyne y su esposa, Tatiana Poladko, iniciaron en el sótano de una iglesia hace 14 años. Varios están presentes esta noche contando sus propias travesías educativas, que culminaron con becas completas para escuelas como la Universidad de Chicago y la Universidad Wesleyan, donde los costos anuales estimados se acercan a los $90,000.

Antes de la decisión de la Corte Suprema en el caso Students for Fair Admissions contrz Harvard, las universidades altamente selectivas servían como un faro de esperanza y movilidad económica para estudiantes como los que aconseja TeenSHARP. Muchos son los primeros en sus familias en asistir a la universidad y carecen de conexiones heredadas o de acceso a consejeros privados que durante mucho tiempo han dado un impulso a los estudiantes más ricos.

But even before the high court ruling, Black and Latino students were poorly represented at these institutions, while the college degree gap between Black and white Americans was getting worse. For some students, the court decision sends a message that they do not belong, and if they get in, they worry they’ll stand out even more.

Incluso antes del fallo del tribunal superior, los estudiantes afroamericanos y latinos estaban escasamente representados en estas instituciones, mientas que la brecha de títulos universitarios entre estadounidenses negros y blancos sigue empeoriando. Para algunos estudiantes, la decisión judicial envía el mensaje de que no pertenecen, y que, si ingresan, les preocupa resaltar aún más.

“Me sentí realmente molesto por eso”, dijo Jamel Powell, un estudiante de secundaria de Belle Mead, Nueva Jersey, que participa en TeenSHARP, sobre el fallo de acción afirmativa. “Este sistema ha ayudado a muchas minorías subrepresentadas a ingresar a estas escuelas de la Ivy League y sobresalir”.

Si bien el impacto total de la decisión sobre la demografía de los estudiantes no es claro, los representantes de 33 universidades escribieron en un informe amicus presentado en el caso que la proporción de estudiantes afroamericanos en sus campus caería de aproximadamente 7.1 por ciento a 2.1 por ciento, si se prohíben acciones afirmativas.

La incertidumbre sobre lo que significa la decisión está pasando factura a los estudiantes y consejeros escolares a nivel nacional, dijo Mandy Savitz-Romer, profesora titular de la Graduate School of Education de Harvard. Mientras las universidades analizan cómo pueden cumplir sus compromisos con la diversidad y al mismo tiempo cumplir con la ley, los estudiantes se preguntan si mencionar su raza en los ensayos de aplicación los ayudará o los perjudicará.

En la decisión mayoritaria, el presidente del Tribunal Supremo, John Roberts, escribió que la raza sólo podía invocarse dentro del contexto de la historia de vida del solicitante, haciendo de los ensayos la única oportunidad para que los estudiantes discutieran su raza y origen étnico. Pero desde entonces, Edward Blum, el activista conservador que ayudó a llevar el caso ante el tribunal, ha amenazado con más demandas, prometiendo cuestionar cualquier tema de ensayo que no sea “más que un subterfugio clandestino para divulgar la raza de un estudiante”.

El Departamento de Educación ha publicado directrices que dicen que, si bien las escuelas no pueden poner el dedo en la escala de los estudiantes en función de su raza, “siguen siendo libres” de considerar las características vinculadas a las experiencias de vida de los estudiantes individuales, incluida la raza. La National Association of College Admission Counseling emitió una guía similar, mientras que la Common App introdujo nuevos temas de ensayo que incluyen uno sobre la “identidad” y los “antecedentes” de los estudiantes.

Debido a la incertidumbre, los consejeros escolares necesitan capacitación específica en la elaboración de ensayos y en cómo hablar o no sobre la raza, dijo Savitz-Romer durante un webinar en Harvard, el mes pasado, sobre admisiones universitarias después de la acción afirmativa. “Necesitamos consejeros y maestros para que los estudiantes comprendan que la universidad todavía es para ellos”, dijo.

Es una tarea difícil: en promedio, los consejeros de las escuelas públicas atienden a más de 400 estudiantes cada uno, lo que ofrece poco tiempo para asesoramiento personalizado.

Esa realidad es la razón por la que grupos de asesoramiento sin fines de lucro como TeenSHARP trabajan junto a los estudiantes, guiándolos a través de un sistema de admisión cada vez más confuso. El equipo de tres asesores de TeenSHARP trabaja intensamente con aproximadamente 140 estudiantes a la vez, incluidos 50 estudiantes de último año que a menudo se postulan hasta a 20 universidades para maximizar sus posibilidades.

Esa es una fracción de los que necesitan ayuda, otra razón por la que los líderes del grupo dependen de su red de más de 500 “Sharpies”, como se conoce a los alumnos.

Emily Rodríguez, estudiante de último año de TeenSHARP que asiste a la Escuela de Ciencias Conrad en Wilmington, decidió abordar la raza de frente en sus ensayos universitarios: escribió sobre su determinación de no “hacer el papel de la pobre y sumisa mexicana”.

Hamza Parker, estudiante de último año de la escuela secundaria Smyrna de Delaware, quien se mudó a Estados Unidos desde Arabia Saudita cuando cursaba sexto grado, dijo que al principio estaba en contra de escribir sobre su identidad. “Siento que te pone en una posición en la que tienes que tener una historia triste para tu ensayo en lugar de hablar de algo bueno que sucedió en tu vida”, les dijo a Alleyne y Poladko durante una sesión de asesoramiento por Zoom.

Pero en la sesión, Alleyne y Poladko la alentaron a inspirarse en su propia historia, una de la que conocen algo gracias a su trabajo con su hermana mayor, Hasana, ahora estudiante de tercer año en Pomona College. La familia tuvo una mudanza difícil desde Arabia Saudita a la ciudad de Nueva York y más tarde a Delaware, donde Hamza se unió a la Black Student Coalition de Delaware.

Hamza decidió revisar su ensayo centrado en la lingüística para describir cómo experimentó el racismo y luego abrazó su herencia musulmana.

“Soy mi yo social normal y mi fe y vestimenta musulmana son ampliamente conocidas y respetadas en mi escuela”, escribió. “Incluso mi escuela tiene ahora un espacio dedicado a la oración durante el Ramadán”.

Alleyne y Poladko normalmente trabajan con estudiantes que están comenzando su primer año de escuela secundaria, por lo que la pareja puede guiar todo el proceso de solicitud de ingreso a la universidad, como lo hacen algunos costosos asesores privados. Los servicios de TeenSHARP son gratuitos y como organización sin fines de lucro, depende del apoyo de una variedad de donantes.

Ni Poladko ni Alleyne asistieron a escuelas de élite. Se conocieron como estudiantes de posgrado en la Universidad de Rutgers y se comprometieron a iniciar TeenSHARP después de ayudar a la sobrina de Alleyne, estudiante de una gran escuela secundaria pública de la ciudad de Nueva York, a postularse para universidades.

Asombrados por lo complicadas e inaccesibles que podían ser las admisiones universitarias, los dos decidieron convertirlo en el trabajo de su vida, redactando subvenciones y obteniendo donaciones de bancos y fundaciones locales para poder atender a más estudiantes.

Su trabajo ahora es en gran medida remoto: durante la pandemia, la pareja se mudó de Wilmington a la Ucrania natal de Poladko para estar más cerca de su familia, lo que los llevó a una dramática fuga a Polonia con sus tres hijos pequeños cuando estalló la guerra. Poladko se está tomando un año sabático en TeenSHARP este año, aunque todavía ayuda a algunos estudiantes a través de Zoom. Alleyne vuela de Varsovia a Wilmington para reunirse con los estudiantes en persona, a menudo en el centro comunitario del lugar que alguna vez albergó sus oficinas.

También dependen de las relaciones que han construido a lo largo de los años con presidentes de universidades y funcionarios de admisiones en escuelas como Boston College, Pomona College y Wesleyan, Carleton y Macalester Colleges en Minnesota y muchas otras universidades las cuales han dado la bienvenida a los solicitantes de TeenSHARP.

“Necesitamos más ‘Sharpies’ en nuestro campus”, dijo Suzanne Rivera, presidenta de Macalester College, en Minnesota, y miembro del consejo asesor de TeenSHARP. “Sus preguntas son siempre muy inteligentes y reveladoras”.

Los Sharpies también tienden a convertirse en líderes del campus, en parte porque TeenSHARP requiere que sus estudiantes desarrollen habilidades de liderazgo. Eso es algo que William García, quien se graduó de la Universidad de Chicago la primavera pasada, les dijo a los estudiantes de último año en Wilmington.

Al principio, se sintió aislado en Chicago, reticente a hablar de sus experiencias como hispano. “Yo estaba en tu lugar hace cinco años”, dijo García. Más tarde se dio cuenta de que su experiencia podía ser una ventaja y la aprovechó para convertir un ingrediente de uno de los licores más populares de México en una iniciativa comercial para su propia empresa de bebidas de agave.

“Abraza tu historia; cuenta tu historia”, dijo García. “Contaba mi historia y la gente se interesaba mucho y empezaba a ayudarme”.

Alphina Kamara, graduada de Wesleyan University en 2022, instó a los estudiantes de último año a apuntar alto y mirar más allá de las escuelas estatales y los colegios comunitarios locales que tienen tasas de graduación más bajas y menos recursos, lugares donde podría haber terminado si no fueran para TeenSHARP.

“Nunca hubiera sabido que existían escuelas como Wesleyan y que yo, como mujer negra de primera generación, tenía un lugar en ellas”, dijo Kamara, hija de padres inmigrantes de Sierra Leona.

Aun así, siempre habrá algunos estudiantes de TeenSHARP que no van a querer estar en campus con un historial terrible en materia de diversidad, incluso antes de la decisión del tribunal.

Tariah Hyland, quien en la escuela secundaria cofundó la Black Student Coalition de Delaware, sabía que se sentiría más cómoda en uno de los más de 100 colegios y universidades históricamente negros (o HBCU, por sus siglas en inglés) del país. Le dijo a la audiencia de Delaware que está prosperando en su tercer año en la Universidad Howard, donde estudia ciencias políticas.

Powell, estudiante de tercer año de Nueva Jersey, está mirando tanto a Howard como al Morehouse College de Atlanta y dijo que probablemente sólo postulará a las HBCU.

“Cuando estaba en la escuela pública, era el único niño negro en mis clases”, dijo Powell, que ahora asiste a Acelus Academy, una escuela en línea. “Siempre fui una minoría, por lo que, al ir a una HBCU, probablemente vería más personas que se parecen a mí”.

Esto no sorprende a Chelsea Holley, directora de admisiones del Spelman College en Atlanta, quien dijo que espera “más interés por parte de los estudiantes negros y minoritarios, ahora que la Corte Suprema ha tomado lo que creo que es una decisión política regresiva”.

HBCU como Spelman, entre cuyos graduados se encuentran la fundadora del Children’s Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman, y la autora Alice Walker, ya están viendo más solicitudes y se están volviendo aún más competitivas.

“Si los estudiantes afroamericanos de último año de secundaria ya no se sienten bienvenidos en campus predominantemente blancos, es menos probable que presenten su solicitud e incluso menos probable que se inscriban, aun cuando se les ofrece la admisión”, dijo Holley y agregó que los estudiantes pueden estar preocupados por más ataques a la diversidad y la inclusión en los campus universitarios y creen que se sentirán más cómodos en una HBCU.

Aun así, no todos predicen que el fallo judicial precipitará una caída permanente de estudiantes afroamericanos e hispanos en universidades selectivas predominantemente blancas. Richard Kahlenberg, autor y académico de la Universidad de Georgetown, predice que la caída será temporal y que la prohibición de la acción afirmativa eventualmente conducirá a un panorama más justo para los estudiantes de bajos ingresos de todas las razas.

Kahlenberg, quien sirvió como testigo experto para Students for Fair Admissions, dijo que quiere ver el fin de las preferencias heredadas, así como del reclutamiento atlético, para que las universidades puedan dar “un impulso significativo” a los “estudiantes desfavorecidos de todas las razas”, agregando que es posible “obtener diversidad racial sin preferencias raciales”. Los desafíos a las admisiones heredadas están aumentando: el Departamento de Educación ha abierto una investigación sobre el uso de esta práctica por parte de Harvard y un reciente proyecto de ley bipartidista exige que las universidades pongan fin a esta práctica.

A medida que se acerca la mitad de diciembre, Alleyne y Poladko esperan ansiosamente ver cómo le irá al puñado de estudiantes de TeenSHARP que solicitaron una decisión anticipada.

“Los funcionarios de admisiones nos aseguran que su compromiso con la diversidad no ha cambiado”, dijo Poladko. “Pero tendremos que ver. Hemos explicado a las familias y a los estudiantes que este año es un año de aprendizaje”.

Hasta entonces, tanto Poladko como Alleyne seguirán presionando a los estudiantes para que ayuden a quienes vengan después de ellos.

“Nuestro objetivo es descubrir el juego de las admisiones y darles una ventaja a nuestros estudiantes”, dijo Alleyne. “Y nuestro trabajo es enseñarles cómo jugar”.

Esta historia sobre TeenSHARP es la primera en una serie de artículos producidos por by The Hechinger Report conjunto con Soledad O’Brien Productions, sobre el impacto de la decisión de la Corte Suprema que prohíbe la acción afirmativa.

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I cried the day I gained acceptance to Wesleyan University in 2018. My tears signified relief, joy and excitement. I viewed my acceptance into this elite private institution as a dooropening, a new opportunity for young Black students like me.

As a Sierra Leonean American, I had felt constrained by my public education in the United States. I had to fight against low expectations and conditions that devalued my potential, including “accidentally” being placed into English as a Second Language in elementary school, even though English is my first language. I then had to fight for a spot in upper-level classes when I got into high school.

I was fortunate to become a part of TeenSHARP, a college access program for marginalized students that exposed me to schools like Wesleyan and taught me how to advocate for myself while paving the way for others.

Little did I know that my acceptance to Wesleyan was opening a portal to an academic and corporate world in which I would see even fewer people who looked like me. While many college students experience their first semester as an exhilarating time filled with joining student groups, I spent a lot of my time grappling with what it meant to be the only Black woman in predominantly white classes. With the end of affirmative action, more students will experience what I felt: being the only or one of a few Black students.

I remember exploring Wesleyan for the first time. The halls were filled with pictures of alumni, mostly white men, that sent me on a trip down the institution’s memory lane where, as a Black woman, I didn’t exist.

No matter how much I told myself that I belonged, the insidious history of Wesleyan, from its pictures to its architecture to its racial makeup, was a haunting reminder that while I may have gained entry into this world, Black people generally do not.

I would have loved to go to a historically Black college or university, but the lack of funding for HBCUs means they can’t be as generous with financial aid,leaving me, and many other Black students, with the options of taking on unsustainable debt or trying to get in somewhere else.

My acceptance to Wesleyan came at a time when race could still be considered in college admissions, before the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action, effectively ending an avenue of hope for Black and Latino groups.

Related: Will the Rodriguez family’s college dreams survive the end of affirmative action?

However, the gap between the numbers of Black and white college graduates was growing even before the court ruled on affirmative action.

Affirmative action was a meager attempt at leveling the playing field. The Supreme Court’s decision to get rid of it will only continue the caste system in which people with marginalized identities are barred from reaching self-determination because we simply can’t get into spaces that will allow us to thrive.

Ending affirmative action is not only an attack on the benefits of diversity in education, but a direct way to end the mobility of students like me by closing the door to opportunities that were already hard to access.

Historically, race has been a social determinant. Race determined which jobs you could get and which schools you could attend. To ignore race in college admissions will not erase the race problem that plagues our nation. It will only exasperate it.

As long as America refuses to look in the mirror and face the social barriers that necessitated the creation of affirmative action in the first place, brilliant students of color will be overlooked in the admissions process.

Related: OPINION: Legacy admissions are unnecessary, raise moral concerns and exclude deserving students

As I build my career, I often find myself in situations similar to those I experienced as an undergraduate: One of just a handful ofBlack people, or even the only one, in professional settings.

The Supreme Court’s decision has now set a precedent such that initiatives like the Fearless Fund, a nonprofit that provides funding for Black women entrepreneurs, are under attack. And many companies have halted diversity, equity and inclusion programs due to fear of being sued.

Now is the time not to be complacent but to educate ourselves, stay informed and mobilize. The court’s decision is a reminder that the rights and opportunities we have fought for are not a given, and only stay firm when we are.

Alphina Kamara is a development associate at The World Justice Project and a previous Fulbright fellow.

This story about the end of affirmative action was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s newsletter.

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Pleasantville is a mostly Black and Hispanic community located between two major freeways, the I-10 and the 610, in Houston, Texas. This placement is no accident, said Bridgette Murray, a retired nurse and local community leader: “The highway plan in the 1950s was used to divide communities of color.” Today, an estimated 300,000 vehicles stream by on a daily basis, she said. The neighborhood is also close to the Houston Ship Channel, exposing it to heavy industrial pollution.

But state air monitoring stations aren’t placed to capture all the hazards concentrated in that small area. So Murray’s group, ACTS (Achieving Community Tasks Successfully), has been partnering for almost a decade with urban planning expert Robert Bullard at Texas Southern University, to do their own air quality monitoring. ACTS just won a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to expand the program.

Bullard has been called the father of the environmental justice movement. His 1990 book “Dumping in Dixie” documented the systemic placement of polluting facilities and waste disposal in communities of color, as well as those communities fighting back. He said scientists and communities need each other.

“Our climate scientists are great at science, but not good translators when it comes to taking that data to people,” he said. “We need the principle of environmental justice embedded in our climate policies. The overarching principle is that the people who are most impacted must speak for themselves and must be in those rooms and at those tables when decisions are being made about their lives.”

“It’s a mutual respect,” Murray said of the relationship between her group and the Texas Southern researchers. “You have to have a partner that respects the ideas you are bringing to the table and also allows you to grow.”

Bullard is co-founder, with Beverly Wright, of the HBCU Climate Change Consortium, which brings together historically black universities and community-based organizations in what Wright has termed the “communiversity” model. There are partnerships like the one in Houston all over the South: Dillard and Xavier Universities, in New Orleans, working on wetlands restoration and equitable recovery from storms; Jackson State is working in Gulfport, Mississippi, on legacy pollution; and Florida A&M in Pensacola on the issue of landfills and borrow pits (holes dug to extract sand and clay that are then used as landfill).

Bullard said it’s no accident that so many HBCUs are involved in this work. “Black colleges and universities historically combined the idea of using education for advancement and liberation, with the struggle for civil rights.”

When these partnerships go smoothly, Bullard said, universities provide community-based organizations with access to data and help advocating for themselves; students and scholars get opportunities to do applied research with a clear social mission.

“We need the principle of environmental justice embedded in our climate policies. The overarching principle is that the people who are most impacted must speak for themselves and must be in those rooms and at those tables when decisions are being made about their lives.”

Robert Bullard, demographer, Texas Southern University

A lot of growth is happening in environmental justice right now. ACTS’ $500,000 EPA grant is part of what the White House touts as “the most ambitious environmental justice agenda ever undertaken by the Federal Government.” Notably, President Biden’s Justice40 initiative decrees that 40 percent of all federal dollars allocated to climate change, clean energy, and related policy goals flow to communities like Pleasantville: marginalized, underserved, and systematically overburdened by pollution.

Expanding on this model, the EPA has allocated $177 million to 16 “Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers” — a mix of nonprofits and universities that will help groups like ACTS get federal grants to achieve their goals.

But, warned Bullard, all the new funding might cause a gold rush, raising the danger of attracting bad actors. Sometimes, he said, universities act like “grant-writing mills,” exploiting communities without sharing the benefits. “You parachute in, you mine the data, you leave and the community doesn’t know what hit them. That is not authentic partnership.”

Murray, at ACTS, has seen that kind of behavior herself. “A one-sided relationship where they came in to take information,” she recalled. “The paper was written, the accolades [for researchers] happen, and the community is just like it was, with no ability to address anything.”

“Our climate scientists are great at science, but not good translators when it comes to taking that data to people.”

Robert Bullard, demographer, Texas Southern University

It takes sensitivity and hard work to overcome what can be a long history of town-gown tensions between universities and local communities. “You have to earn trust,” said Bullard. “Trust is not given by a memorandum of understanding.” One way to break down barriers is to make sure that all participants — whether they have a GED or a PhD — share the air equitably at meetings between researchers and community leaders. And those meetings might be held in the evenings or on weekends, because community groups are often run by volunteers. 

Denae King, a PhD toxicologist, works with Bullard as an associate director at the Bullard Center. She said she’s always looking for a chance to give space to community partners like ACTS, and reduce or equalize any power dynamic.

“I just ended a meeting where someone was asking me to put together a proposal to showcase environmental justice at a conference,” she said. “Before I would be willing to do that, I want to make sure it’s OK to showcase community leaders in this space. I might split my time in half and we co-present. Or it may look like me helping the community leader to prepare their presentation. I might be in the room and say nothing, but my presence says, I’m here to support you.”

This column about the ‘communiversity’ was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

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Dear Reader, 

Saying it’s been a wild year in higher education news seems like the understatement of the century. (I think even non-education nerds would agree!) Thank you for sticking with The Hechinger Report as we tried to make sense of it all. 

The first half of the year felt like we were all collectively holding our breath, waiting for the United States Supreme Court to rule on two massive cases, one on student loan forgiveness and another on affirmative action in college admissions. As we waited, I wrote about the poster child of the anti-affirmative action movement, Jon Marcus broke down federal data that shows the gap between Black and white Americans with college degrees is widening, and Meredith Kolodner reported, as she has before, about the fact that many flagship universities don’t reflect their state’s Black or Latino high school graduates. 

The court ultimately ruled against student loan forgiveness and against the consideration of race in college admissions. 

Shortly thereafter, led by Jon Marcus and Fazil Khan, our team began working on The College Welcome Guide, a tool that helps students and families go beyond the rankings and understand what their life might be like on any four-year college campus in America. Jon’s reporting made it  clear that the culture wars are beginning to affect where students go to college, and we wanted to help ensure people had the many types of information they needed to make the best choice, regardless of who they are or what their political orientation is. 

All the while, we continued covering the country’s community colleges. Jill Barshay wrote about how much it costs to produce a community college graduate, and why some community colleges are choosing to drop remedial math. Jon covered the continuing enrollment struggles at these institutions. I reported on a new initiative to target job training for students at rural community colleges, as well as a guide to help community colleges make this kind of training more effective. 

We also examined some of the many routes people choose to take instead of going to college. I reported on what happens when universities get into unregulated partnerships with for-profit tech boot camps, and Meredith and Sarah Butrymowicz reported on risky, short-term career training programs that exist in a “no man’s land of accountability.” Tara García Mathewson exposed the tricky system that formerly incarcerated people have to navigate if they want to get job training and professional licenses once they’re out of prison. 

And though we love to dig deep into subjects and understand exactly how these big issues affect the lives of regular people, we also zoomed out this year. Meredith, working alongside Matthew Haag from The New York Times, discovered that Columbia University and New York University benefit massively from property tax breaks allowed for nonprofits (they saved $327 million last year alone). After their story was published, New York state legislators proposed a bill that would require these two institutions to pay those taxes and  funnel that money to the City University of New York system, the largest urban public university system in the country.

In 2024, we will continue to cover equity and innovation in higher education with nuance, care and a critical eye. Is there a story you think we should cover? Reply to this email to let us know.

For now, we hope you have a warm and restful break. See you in the new year. 

Olivia

P.S. As a nonprofit news outlet, The Hechinger Report relies on readers like you to support our journalism. If you want to ensure our coverage in 2024 is as extensive and deeply reported as possible, please consider donating.

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WILMINGTON, Del. – A wall of the Rodriguez family home celebrates three seminal events with these words: “A moment in time, changed forever.”

Beneath the inscription, a clock marks the time and dates when three swaddled newborns depicted in large photos entered the world: Ashley, now 19, Emily, 17, and Brianna, 11.

Another“moment in time” occurred last June, one that could change the paths of Emily and Brianna. That’s when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in its landmark case on affirmative action, barring colleges from taking race into consideration as a factor in admission decisions.

The ruling struck down more than 50 years of legal precedent, creating newfound uncertainty for the first class of college applicants to be shaped by the decision – especially for Black and Hispanic students hoping to get into highly competitive colleges that once sought them out.

It also places the Rodriguez sisters on opposite sides of history: Ashley applied to college when schools in many states could still consider race, while Emily can expect no such advantage.

Their parents, Margarita Lopez, 38, and Rafael Rodriguez, 42, are immigrants from Mexico who moved to the United States as teenagers.

Ashley is the first in her family to attend college, a freshman studying child psychology on a full scholarship to prestigious Oxford College of Emory University, where annual estimated costs approached $80,000 this year.

Emily is the middle daughter, a senior and mostly straight-A student at Conrad Schools of Science in Wilmington who wants to become a veterinarian, and who spent most of this fall anxiously awaiting word from her first-choice college, Cornell University.

The impact of the court’s decision on enrollment at hundreds of selective colleges and universities won’t start to become clear until colleges send out offers this spring and release final acceptance figures.

“We definitely feel that this year, the window is narrower for students whose GPA does not tell the full story of their brilliance and the challenges they’ve overcome.”

TeenSHARP co-founder Atnre Alleyne

But many students, counselors and families view this admission cycle as the first test of whether colleges will become less diverse going forward, while cautioning it may take years before a clear pattern emerges. The Hechinger Report contacted more than 40 selective colleges and universities asking for the racial breakdown of those who applied for early decision and were accepted this year.

About half the institutions responded and none provided the requested information. Several said that they would not have such data available even internally until after the admissions cycle wraps up next year. Some have cited advice from legal counsel in declining to release the racial and ethnic composition for the class of 2028.

For the Rodriguez family, higher education has already become a symbol of upward mobility, a life-altering path to meaningful careers and the sort of financial stability that Margarita and Rafael have never known.

College wasn’t a part of their culture, and before last year Rafael and Margarita had no idea how complicated and competitive the landscape would be for their bright, hardworking daughters. Of all U.S. racial or ethnic groups, Hispanic Americans are the least likely to hold a college degree.

“I never even dreamed about a place like Emory, or about all the schools that have really good financial aid,” Margarita said recently. She wouldn’t have looked beyond the local community college and state universities for her daughters if she hadn’t learned about TeenSHARP, a nonprofit that prepares high-performing students from underrepresented backgrounds for higher education.

She immediately signed up Ashley, and later, Emily.

TeenSHARP co-founder Atnre Alleyne, with his wife, Tatiana Poladko, and team of advisers, guided Ashley and Emily through their high school course selection and college essays, while pointing out leadership opportunities and colleges with good track records of offering scholarships.

Related: College advisors vow to kick the door open for Black and Hispanic students despite affirmative action ruling

Emory is one. The school admitted no Black students until 1963, but has aggressively recruited students from underrepresented backgrounds in recent years. Hispanic enrollment had been growing before the Supreme Court’s decision, from 7.5 percent in 2017 to 9.2 percent in 2021. Ashley’s class at Oxford is 15 percent Hispanic.

“I felt like I was right at home here,” Ashley said, shortly after arriving in August. The entire Rodriguez family dropped her off and stayed for a few days until she was settled. “It felt very homey to me,” she said. “Everybody is so welcoming.”

Still, Ashley worried about her grades as she adjusted to her new workload. She fielded constant texts and calls from her family, who were adjusting to having her away from home for the first time.

Emily missed her sister terribly – together they’d started their high school’s club for first-generation scholars, helping others navigate college choices. “She has the brain and I like to talk,” Emily joked.

This fall, Emily set her sights on some of the most selective colleges in the country, many of which had terrible track records on diversity even before the Supreme Court’s decision. She approached her search knowing that she was unlikely to get any boost based on her ethnicity.

That makes her angry.

“We have so much history behind us as people of color,” Emily said. “So why would we be put at the same level as somebody whose family has benefited off of the harm done to communities of color?”

Emily also knew she would need a hefty scholarship to attend one of her dream schools; her family can’t afford the tuition, and they’ve been loath to saddle their daughters with loans.

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing if poor whites now benefit from affirmative action.”

Richard Kahlenberg, an author and scholar at Georgetown University

Elite schools like those on Ashley and Emily’s lists are more likely to be filled with wealthy students: Families from the top 0.1 percent are more than twice as likely to get in as other applicants with the same test scores. But such schools also offer the most generous scholarship and aid packages, and Emily and Ashley believed they presented the best shot at a different life from their parents’.

“Ever since I was little, I knew that college was the ticket to break this cycle our family has been in for generations and generations, of not knowing, of not being educated,” Emily said. “And because of that, having to work with their backs instead of their brains.”

That the Rodriguez sisters could even consider top-tier colleges is a credit to their mother.

“I want them to have the opportunity I never had,” Margarita said. “I know that life after education will be easier for them. I don’t want them to be working 12, 14 hours like their dad did.”

Rafael Rodriguez has always worked: first, with livestock as a child in central Mexico and later, in Florida, on an orange farm until the age of 15, with a residential permit. His earnings went toward helping the rest of the family come to the United States and settle in West Grove, Pennsylvania.

Rafael didn’t attend high school because he had to help support his parents and sisters. He now owns a trucking company.

Margarita desperately wanted to go to college, but said her mother did not believe in taking out loans for higher education and refused to sign her financial aid forms.

Instead, she married Rafael a few days after graduating from high school and had Ashley a year later. Emily was born 17 months later. Margarita was thinking of enrolling in community college until Brianna came along six years later. She now helps Rafael with his trucking business while working as a translator.

Both sisters are keenly aware of the gulf between their lives and their mom’s. In her college essay, Ashley described being “a daughter of two immigrant parents who undertook a dangerous journey from their native Guanajuato, Mexico, to America.”

Emily wrote about how Margarita had violated “every norm of our Mexican community, allowing me to sacrifice my time with family on weekends and in the summer” to attend Saturday leadership trainings with TeenSHARP, as well as college-level courses in epidemiology and health sciences at Brown, Cornell and the University of Delaware.

Related: Colleges decry Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, but most have terrible track records on diversity

The pressure Emily feels is both formidable and familiar to the immigrant experience, magnified by the divisive court decision.

Hamza Parker, a senior at Smyrna High School in Delaware, feels it as well. He was at first unsure of whether or not to write about race in his essay, a debate many students have been having.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his majority decision that race could be invoked only within the context of the applicant’s life story, leaving it up to students to decide if they would use their essays to discuss their race.

Meanwhile, conservative activist Edward Blum, who helped bring the case before the court, has threatened more lawsuits and said he would challenge essays “used to ascertain or provide a benefit based on the applicant’s race.”

“I never even dreamed about a place like Emory, or about all the schools that have really good financial aid.”

Margarita Rodriguez, mother

Hamza wavered at first, then rewrote his essay to describe his family’s move to the United States from Saudi Arabia in sixth grade and the racism he subsequently experienced. He applied early decision to Union College in upstate New York; earlier this month, he learned via email that he did not get in.

Neither Hamza nor his father, Timothy Parker, an engineer, know why, or what role affirmative action played in Union’s decision: Rejections never come with explanations.

Parker hopes his son will now consider an HBCU like the one he attended, Hampton University, in Virginia. He worries that if Hamza ends up at a school where he is clearly in the minority, he could be made to feel as though he doesn’t belong.

Related: Beyond the Rankings: College Welcome Guide

“I’m letting it be his choice,” Parker said, noting that Hamza might also feel more comfortable at an HBCU given the nation’s divisive political climate. With the end of affirmative action, he added, “It feels like we are going backwards not forward.”

HBCUs are becoming more competitive after the court’s decision. Chelsea Holley, director of admissions at Spelman College in Atlanta, said Black high schoolers may be choosing HBCUs because they fear further assaults on diversity and inclusion and believe they’ll feel more comfortable on predominantly Black campuses.

Parker is now finishing his applications to Denison University, the University of Maryland, the University of Delaware, and Carleton College. He’s not sure if Hampton will be on his list.

Alleyne, Hamza’s adviser, said that while they will never know if the court’s decision had any impact on Hamza’s rejection from Union, he’s concerned about what it portends for other TeenSHARP seniors.

“We have so much history behind us as people of color. So why would we be put at the same level as somebody whose family has benefited off of the harm done to communities of color?”

Emily Rodriguez, high school senior

“There are so many factors at play with every application,” Alleyne said. “We definitely feel that this year, the window is narrower for students whose GPA does not tell the full story of their brilliance and the challenges they’ve overcome.”

Alleyne is also concerned that scholarships once available for students like Parker are disappearing. Some of the race-based scholarships his students applied for in past years are no longer listed on college websites, he said.

At the same time, there are plenty who believe that the court’s decision was a much-needed correction, including Richard Kahlenberg, an author and scholar at Georgetown University who testified in the case. He argues that the ban will lead to a fairer landscape for low-income students for all races.

Kahlenberg is in favor of using affirmative action based on class instead of race. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing if poor whites now benefit from affirmative action,” Kahlenberg said.

Related: A poster child for protesting affirmative action now says he never meant for it to be abolished

For the Rodriguez family, Cornell’s early decision announcement was long anticipated, to be marked on the magnetic calendar attached to their refrigerator as soon as they knew it. Ashley would be home from Emory for winter break and would hear the news alongside her sister.

For weeks, the family had prepared themselves for bad news: Cornell had announced it was limiting the number of students it would accept early decision, in what the university said was “an effort to increase equity in the admissions process.”

Still, Emily had spent a summer studying at Cornell and gotten to know some faculty and advisers there. She had fallen in love with the animal science program, and the lively upstate New York college town of Ithaca, set amid stunning gorges and waterfalls.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” Rafael said as they huddled together in front of Emily’s laptop. Emily wore a white t-shirt with “Cornell” emblazoned in bold red letters on the front, for good luck. She wavered, then clicked.

“Congratulations, you have been admitted to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences: College major: Animal Science at Cornell University for the fall of 2024. Welcome to the Cornell community!” said the email on her screen, adorned with red confetti.Annual estimated costs for next year would be $92,682 – but Cornell pledged to meet all of it.

Emily screamed, and the room erupted in cheers. Every member of the family began sobbing. Cinnamon, the family’s three-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, barked wildly.

Emily jumped up and down. “Ivy League!” she shouted. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. I did it.”

Brianna, a sixth grader who will work with TeenSHARP once she’s in high school, hugged both of her sisters.

It will be her turn next.

Additional reporting was contributed by Sarah Butrymowicz.

This story about the end of affirmative action is the second in a series of articles accompanying a documentary produced by The Hechinger Report in partnership with Soledad O’Brien Productions, about the impact of the Supreme Court ruling on race-based affirmative action. Hechinger is a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

The post Will the Rodriguez family’s college dreams survive the end of affirmative action? appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Striding into a packed community center filled with high school seniors, Atnre Alleyne has a few words of advice for the crowd, members of the first class of college applicants to be shaped by June’s Supreme Court ruling striking down race-conscious admissions.

“You have to get good grades, you have to find a way to do the academics, but also become leaders,” said Alleyne, the energetic co-founder and CEO of TeenSHARP, a nonprofit that prepares students from underrepresented backgrounds for higher education. “In your schools, do something! Fight for social justice.”

Many of the TeenSHARP participants gathered here, who are predominantly Black or Hispanic, worry that their chances of getting into top-tier schools have diminished with the court’s decision. They wonder what to say in their admissions essays and how comfortable they’ll feel on campuses that could become increasingly less diverse.

On this autumn night, Alleyne and his team are fielding questions from the dozens of students they advise, on everything from early decision deadlines to which schools are most likely to give generous financial aid and scholarships. The changed admissions landscape has only increased the team’s determination to develop a new generation of leaders, students who will fight to have their voices represented on campuses and later on in the workplace.

“I want them to kick the door open to these places, so they will go back and open more doors,” Alleyne said.

That goal is shared by successful alumni of the program Alleyne and his wife, Tatiana Poladko, started in a church basement 14 years ago. Several are on hand tonight recounting their own educational journeys, culminating in full scholarships to schools such as the University of Chicago and Wesleyan University, where annual estimated costs approach $90,000.

Before the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, highly selective colleges served as a beacon of hope and economic mobility for students like those TeenSHARP advise. Many are first in their families to attend college and lack legacy connections or access to the private counselors who’ve long given a boost to wealthier students.

Related: Colleges decry Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, but most have terrible records on diversity

But even before the high court ruling, Black and Latino students were poorly represented at these institutions, while the college degree gap between Black and white Americans was getting worse. For some students, the court decision sends a message that they do not belong, and if they get in, they worry they’ll stand out even more.

“I felt really upset about it,” Jamel Powell, a high school junior from Belle Mead, New Jersey, who participates in TeenSHARP, said about the affirmative action ruling. “This system has helped many underrepresented minorities get into these Ivy League schools and excel.”

While the full impact of the ruling on student demographics remains unknown, representatives of 33 colleges wrote in an amicus brief filed in the case that the share of Black students on their campuses would drop from roughly 7.1 percent to 2.1 percent if affirmative action were banned.

The uncertainty of what the decision means is taking a toll on students and school counselors nationally, said Mandy Savitz-Romer, a senior lecturer at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. As colleges sort through how they can meet commitments to diversity while complying with the law, students wonder if mentioning race in their essays will help or hurt them.

In his majority decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that race could be invoked only within the context of the applicant’s life story, making essays the one opportunity for students to discuss their race and ethnicity. But since then, Edward Blum, the conservative activist who helped bring the case before the court, has threatened more lawsuits, promising to challenge any essay topic that is “nothing more than a back-channel subterfuge for divulging a student’s race.”

The Department of Education has published guidelines saying that while schools cannot put a thumb on the scale for students based on their race, they “remain free” to consider characteristics tied to individual students’ life experiences, including race. The National Association of College Admission Counseling issued similar guidance, while the Common App introduced new essay prompts that include one about students’ “identity” and “background.”

Because of the uncertainty,school counselors need specific training on crafting essays and how or whether to talk about race, Savitz-Romer said during a Harvard webinar last month on college admissions after affirmative action. “We need counselors and teachers to make students understand that college is still for them,” she said.

It’s a tall order: On average, public school counselors serve more than 400 students each, which offers little time for one-on-one advising.

Related: Why aren’t more school counselors trained in helping students apply to college?

That reality is why nonprofit advising groups like TeenSHARP toil alongside students, guiding them through an increasingly confounding admissions system. TeenSHARP’s team of three advisers works intensively with roughly 140 students at a time, including 50 seniors who often apply to as many as 20 colleges to maximize their chances.

That’s a fraction of those who need help, another reason why the group’s leaders rely on their network of more than 500 “Sharpies,” as alums are known.

Emily Rodriguez, a TeenSHARP senior who attends Conrad Schools of Science in Wilmington, decided to address race head on in her college essays: She wrote about her determination that she would not “play the role of the poor submissive Mexican woman.”

“Admissions officers assure us that their commitment to diversity hasn’t changed. But we will have to see. We’ve explained to families and students that this year is a learning year.”

Tatiana Poladko, co-founder, TeenSHARP

Hamza Parker, a senior at Delaware’s Smyrna High School who moved to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia as a sixth grader, said he was against writing about his identity at first. “I feel like it puts you in a position where you have to have a sob story for your essay instead of talking about something good, like, that happened in your life,” he told Alleyne and Poladko during a counseling session over Zoom.

But in the session Alleyne and Poladko encouraged him to draw from his own story, one they know something about from working with his older sister Hasana, now a junior at Pomona College. The family had a difficult move from Saudi Arabia to New York City and later Delaware, where Hamza joined the Delaware Black Student Coalition.

Hamza decided to revise his essay from one focused on linguistics to describe experiencing racism and then embracing his Muslim heritage.

“I am my normal social self and my Muslim faith and garb are widely known and respected at my school,” he wrote. “My school even now has a dedicated space for prayer during Ramadan.”

Related: The newest benefit at top companies: Private college admissions counseling

Alleyne and Poladko typically work with students who are beginning their first year of high school, so the pair can guide the entire college application process, much as some pricey private counselors do — although TeenSHARP’s services are free; as a nonprofit it relies on an array of donors for support.

Neither Poladko nor Alleyne attended elite schools. They met as graduate students at Rutgers University and became committed to starting TeenSHARP after helping Alleyne’s niece apply to colleges from a large New York City public high school.

Astonished by how complicated and inaccessible college admissions could be, the two decided to make it their life’s work, writing grants and getting donations from local banks and foundations so they could serve more students.

“I felt really upset about it. This system has helped many underrepresented minorities get into these Ivy League schools and excel.”

Jamel Powell, a high school junior from Belle Mead, New Jersey, who participates in TeenSHARP, about the affirmative action ruling.

Their work is now largely remote: During the pandemic, the couple relocated from Wilmington to Poladko’s native Ukraine to be closer to her family, leading to a dramatic escape to Poland with their three young children when war broke out. Poladko is taking a sabbatical from TeenSHARP this year, although she still helps some students via Zoom. Alleyne flies from Warsaw to Wilmington to meet with students in person, often at the community center downtown that once housed their offices.

They also rely on relationships they’ve built over the years with college presidents and admissions officers at schools like Boston College, Pomona College and Wesleyan, along with both Carleton and Macalester Colleges in Minnesota, many of whom have welcomed TeenSHARP applicants.

“We need more ‘Sharpies’ on our campus,” said Suzanne Rivera, president of Macalester College, in Minnesota, and a member of TeenSHARP’s advisory board. “Their questions are always so smart and so insightful.”

Sharpies also tend to become campus leaders, in part because TeenSHARP requires that its students develop leadership skills. That’s something William Garcia, who graduated from the University of Chicago last spring, told seniors in Wilmington.

“If Black high school seniors no longer feel like they are welcomed on predominantly white campuses, they are less likely to apply and even less likely to enroll even if they are offered admission.”

Chelsea Holley, director of admissions at Spelman College in Atlanta

At first, he felt isolated in Chicago, reticent to talk about his experiences as a Hispanic man. “I was in your shoes five years ago,” Garcia said. He later realized his background could be an asset, and drew on it to turn an ingredient for one of Mexico’s most popular liquors into a business venture for his own agave beverage company.

“Embrace your story; tell your story,” Garcia said. “I would tell my story and people would be really interested and would start to help me.”

Alphina Kamara, a 2022 graduate of Wesleyan University, urged seniors to aim high and look beyond state schools and local community colleges that have lower graduation rates and fewer resources — campuses she might have ended up at it not for TeenSHARP.

“I would have never have known that schools like Wesleyan existed, and that I, as a first-generation Black woman, had a place in them,” said Kamara, the child of immigrant parents from Sierra Leone.

Related: Beyond the Rankings: College Welcome Guide

Still, there will always be some TeenSHARP students who don’t want to be on campuses that had terrible track records for diversity, even before the court’s decision.

Tariah Hyland, who in high school co-founded the Delaware Black Student Coalition, knew she’d be more comfortable at one of the country’s more than 100 historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs. She told the Delaware audience that she’s thriving in her junior year at Howard University, where she is studying political science.

Powell, the New Jersey junior, is eyeing both Howard and Atlanta’s Morehouse College and said he’ll likely only apply to HBCUs.

“When I was in public school, I was the only Black boy in my classes,” said Powell, who now attends Acelus Academy, an online school. “I was always the minority, and so by going to an HBCU, I would likely see more people who look like me.” 

That’s no surprise to Chelsea Holley, director of admissions at Spelman College in Atlanta, who said she’s expecting “more interest from Black and Brown students, now that the Supreme Court has made what I believe to be a regressive political decision.”

HBCUs like Spelman — whose graduates include Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman and author Alice Walker — are already seeing more applications and are becoming even more competitive.

“If Black high school seniors no longer feel like they are welcomed on predominantly white campuses, they are less likely to apply and even less likely to enroll, even if they are offered admission,” Holley said, adding that students may be worried about further assaults on diversity and inclusion on college campuses and believe they will be more comfortable at an HBCU.

Still, not everyone predicts the court ruling will precipitate a permanent drop in Black and Hispanic students at predominantly white, selective colleges. Richard Kahlenberg, an author and scholar at Georgetown University predicts the drop will be temporary, and that the affirmative action ban will eventually lead to a fairer landscape for low-income students of all races.

Kahlenberg, who served as an expert witness for Students for Fair Admissions, said he wants to see an end to legacy preferences as well as athletic recruiting, so that colleges can give “a meaningful boost” to “disadvantaged students of all races” and “you can get racial diversity without racial preferences.” Challenges to legacy admissions are mounting: The Education Department has opened an investigation into Harvard’s use of the practice, and a recent bipartisan bill calls for colleges to end it.

As mid-December approaches, Alleyne and Poladko are anxiously waiting to see how the handful of TeenSHARP students who applied for early decision will fare.

“Admissions officers assure us that their commitment to diversity hasn’t changed,” Poladko said. “But we will have to see. We’ve explained to families and students that this year is a learning year.”

Until that time, both Poladko and Alleyne will continue pushing students to help those who come after them.

“Our goal is to figure out the game of admissions and give our students an advantage,” Alleyne said. “And our job is to teach them how to play the game.”

This story about TeenSHARP is the first in a series of articles, produced by The Hechinger Report in partnership with Soledad O’Brien Productions, about the impact of the Supreme Court ruling on race-based affirmative action. Stay tuned for an upcoming documentary and part II. Hechinger is a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

The post College advisers vow to ‘kick the door open’ for Black and Hispanic students despite affirmative action ruling  appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

The Black college students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) share a common bond with other marginalized groups. Our nation’s history is replete with stories of the relentless fight for equitable voting rights.

That’s why, as this struggle continues due to the need to combat various voter suppression tactics, college campuses must play a crucial role in promoting a connection between political leaders and their electorate.

Higher education has the power to formidably facilitate political engagement on campus by supporting greater access to political candidates.

The voices heard, the debates sparked and the connections made can ignite student political engagement.

As researchers on the political socialization of Black youth voters at HBCUs, we can offer critical advice for those seeking to engage with HBCU students. Successful political messaging to this demographic lies in authentic engagement that includes a sincere effort to address students’ concerns and priorities.

Superficial appearances, monologues or insincere support-seeking will not make the intended impact.

Related:  Could colleges make voting as popular as going to football games?

When political candidates embark on message and outreach tours, they must be careful not to alienate the critical yet frequently underestimated population of Black youth voters, who too often feel that they only matter to politicians during election season.

We know this from interviews with over 118 young Black voters at HBCUs, who expressed frustration with politicians who resort to hollow pandering by playing identity politics — for example, “Vote for me because you are Black” — or making superficial statements like “I keep hot sauce in my bag” or “I’ve lit up a joint.”

Such tactics are a turn-off for these young voters, who want genuine conversations about their rights before discussions about what they should do with their votes.

The interviews were part of our recently completed, National Science Foundation-supported research investigating the political socialization of Black youth at HBCUs.

Politicians who invite themselves onto our campuses should prioritize giving students unfiltered access that allows for unscripted interactions and authentic engagement.

Here are some recommendations based on our findings:

First, candidates should strategically engage with youth voters by going where they are. The key to engaging young voters effectively lies in the choice of location and method of interaction.

Instead of speaking in grand auditoriums, candidates should focus on smaller venues — campus cafeterias, quads and student dormitories — to facilitate flexible and genuine conversations.

Second, candidates should emphasize that they want to learn from students during their campus visits. The significance of these visits lies in the lessons imparted by and the feedback received from students — listening to student voices is essential to make visits impactful. Candidates should convey that they believe students can make valuable contributions.

Third, these young voters want politicians to pay genuine attention to their needs and aspirations. As one participant aptly expressed, “Show what you’ve done. Why would I vote for you, if you haven’t done anything in my community that shows me that you’re here for me and not just my vote?”

Finally, candidates should make efforts to keep the momentum of voter engagement going beyond Election Day. Voting is just the beginning, and if candidates gain Black youth voters’ initial support, they may earn enduring support.

Candidates’ campus visits are opportunities for voters and politicians to cultivate trust and foster stronger relationships beyond Election Day.

Engagement is not about pandering or making campaign pit stops; instead, it’s about empowering a generation to vote for leaders who truly champion their causes.

One example: Vice President Kamala Harris has been touring college campuses, including HBCUs, on her  “Fight for Our Freedoms College Tour.”

However, her lecture-like approach, with moderated discussions, seems to be falling short of establishing a genuine connection. If the tour’s goal is to inspire and empower young voters on topics important to their demographic, it should actively include them in the plan.

Related: OPINION: To train the next generation of entrepreneurs, look to HBCUs

Politicians who invite themselves onto our campuses should prioritize giving students unfiltered access that allows for unscripted interactions and authentic engagement.

Politicians need not search far for exemplars, for academics manifest this practice daily in their classrooms. They engage students in open dialogues, affording them the opportunity to pose unvetted inquiries and receive forthright responses.

Postsecondary institutions should help facilitate these connections between politicians and students, thus amplifying youth voter voices in a manner that centers them. Simply giving politicians the chance to be visible on campus is not enough and won’t matter beyond Election Day.

Students want to hear from and vote for leaders who legitimately connect with them and will actively advocate for their causes.

Amanda Wilkerson is an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida in the Department of Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Shalander “Shelly” Samuels is an Afro-Caribbean assistant professor in the English department in the College of Liberal Arts at Kean University.

This story about HBCU students and politics was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s newsletter.

The post OPINION: Politicians who come to our HBCU campuses must understand and recognize our storied history appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

The end of affirmative action has triggered a reconsideration of legacy admissions. When universities extend advantages to the families of donors and alums, they discriminate against others, especially lower-income and Black students.

Legacy admissions began to get more attention after the Department of Education initiated a civil rights investigation in July 2023 into Harvard’s legacy practice. That was a good beginning, but donors and alums are also responsible for legacy preferences.

Let’s be clear: If it is wrong for universities to give preference to alums and donors, it is wrong for alums and donors to seek those privileges.

When donations to a university are followed by preferential admissions, donors are complicit in the discrimination, inequality and injustice that follow. When donors give with an eye toward future privileges for themselves or for their offspring, they may be engaging in moral licensing: doing good to do bad. Their generosity does not entitle them to advantages that deprive others of opportunities.

It is not surprising that many elite institutions still offer legacy advantages. The policy is a win-win — for donors, alums and the receiving institutions.

Related: PROOF POINTS: Why elite colleges won’t give up legacy admissions

But there are losses for the students not admitted, for our sense of justice and for other universities that might have received the donations.

To be fair, not all donors are looking for a win-win. Some are guided by a moral compass. They give to colleges and universities that promote diversity and equality, with a focus on Black students and middle- and lower-income students.

In 2020 for example, MacKenzie Scott donated $560 million to 23 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

If it is wrong for universities to give preference to alums and donors, it is wrong for alums and donors to seek those privileges.

In August of that year, Jack Dorsey donated $10 million to Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research — even though Dorsey didn’t finish college and didn’t attend Boston University.

In the fall of 2022, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave $100 million to the United Negro College Fund and to other institutions that promote higher education as a means to equality for lower income, Black, Latinx and Indigenous students.

This fall, Blue Meridian Partners’ gave $124 million to 40 HBCUs.

All of this hints at a change in giving norms.

Simply put: There are people in the world who will give generously to support racial equality in higher education. Their giving doesn’t target their alma mater. They don’t anticipate legacy advantages. Their gifts promote the right to education, and do so without deepening inequality.

When donors choose this path, their donations will have a positive impact on a greater number of students, many of whom have endured bias and discrimination. Although these donations cannot compensate for past wrongs, they can promote future good.

Philanthropy is an important mechanism for achieving justice. It gives those who have benefited from collective efforts an opportunity to give back, and some donors agree. As MacKenzie Scott said, “There’s no question in my mind that anyone’s personal wealth is the product of a collective effort, and of social structures which present opportunities to some people, and obstacles to countless others.”

This is not to say that it is always wrong to benefit from one’s charitable actions. Certainly, the warm glow of generosity is a reward in and of itself. But that is very different from a pay-to-play scenario in which giving entails a benefit to the donor at a cost to others.

It is true, however, that legacy preferences can build a sense of community and generate the donations universities need to do the work they want to do. Some donors might not give but for legacy advantages.

Also, an “all in the family” approach to admissions creates a community, one that enhances college life. But who is excluded from that community? And what are the consequences for those left out?

In other contexts, when a donation is linked to a wrong, or a human rights violation, the donor is seen as complicit in that wrong. Donors who give to anti-LGBTQ+ nonprofits are complicit in discrimination against members of the queer community, and those who give to the NRA share responsibility for gun violence.

In the case of legacy admissions, elite universities are effectively discriminating against less privileged students for the benefit of the wealthy — and some donors are enabling them.

Related: OPINION: The Supreme Court just revealed what we already know — Meritocracy is a myth

Fortunately, some universities have already taken legacy preferences off the table. MIT and Wesleyan, for example.

Their actions and the recent donations to HBCUs signal an important change in giving norms and perhaps a bandwagon effect. Hopefully, others will follow the money and legacy practices will soon be a thing of the past. Donors are the engine that drive legacy admissions. They can end them swiftly. Why wait for universities to end legacy admissions, when donors have the power to do so?

Patricia Illingworth is a professor of philosophy at Northeastern University and a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Her most recent book, “Giving Now: Accelerating Human Rights for All,” argues that philanthropy can and should protect human rights.

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ATLANTA – As more and more attempts to restrict discussion of gender and race in K-12 schools across the country take hold, where do the ideas go?

Despite the general hostility, despite the recent legislative attacks on so much of what they stand for, the leaders of Spelman College’s comparative women’s studies department have fostered a sort of “safe haven” for Black feminist and queer studies, said M. Bahati Kuumba, the associate director of the department.

Women’s studies, at Spelman and elsewhere, is an interdisciplinary major that examines the way identity – including race, class, sexuality, gender, ability and age – affects the dynamics of power and privilege in society. The discipline looks critically at racism, sexism and other systems of inequality in society. In a college known for that field of study, it would be hypocritical not to create an environment that welcomes every student and celebrates them for who they are as a whole person, said Esther Ajayi-Lowo, an assistant professor in the department.

“I just feel really lucky, happy that those of us at Spelman are not as impacted by the negative trends,” Kuumba said.  She said this motivates her to “work even harder to make sure the theoretical perspectives that encapsulate our experiences, which are the areas of thought that they’re trying to make illegal, are actually valued at Spelman.”

“I just feel really lucky, happy that those of us at Spelman are not as impacted by the negative trends.”

M. Bahati Kuumba, associate director, department of comparative women’s studies, Spelman College

Among the 102 historically Black colleges and universities, Spelman is the only one that offers a bachelor’s degree in women’s or gender studies. Some other HBCUs offer interdisciplinary degrees in which students can select a concentration on similar topics, and others offer minors in gender or women’s studies. 

Kuumba said that Spelman is an intellectual oasis that has, so far, been spared any legislative attempts to cut funding for certain departments or control what topics can be studied. Other political changes to the education sphere, such as the expected Supreme Court ruling on the use of race in college admissions, Kuumba said, are unlikely to have a significant effect on historically Black colleges like Spelman.

Application figures suggest increased interest in Spelman over the past few years. The women’s college received 13,614 applications for the fall of 2022 – a 48 percent increase over the 9,179 who applied in fall of 2019, according to a spokesperson for the college. Enrollment over the same time period rose by about 12 percent, and the number of students who are majoring in women’s studies has remained steady.

At Spelman, students are sheltered from the negativity in some ways: the community is overwhelmingly made up of Black women, and the principal mission of the college is to educate Black women and prepare them to contribute to positive social change.

And while Atlanta is a liberal city, Georgia isn’t immune to the political struggles. Last year, the governor signed a law limiting what K-12 schools can teach children about racism, and prohibiting anything that might make a student feel guilt or shame about their race. A bill meant to restrict education about gender and sexuality in K-12 schools and other settings was introduced by Republican state lawmakers this spring, but has not progressed.  

Instead of despairing about these policies and others like them in other states, Ajayi-Lowo said the women’s studies department gives students the opportunity to make sense of “racial and gendered oppression,” use history to put it into context and begin building hope. She believes it’s personally empowering to students to learn how to advocate for themselves and their communities.

“It’s not just like, ‘there is a war, all of this is happening, the world’s falling apart,’” Ajayi-Lowo said. “They’re able to see themselves as critical stakeholders who have the agency to make changes.”

Fostering a “safe haven” at Spelman shows students that it’s possible to create communities that are free of oppression, Ajayi-Lowo said, and teaches them that if, later in life, they find themselves with no space like this, they will have the power to recreate it. Knowing they have this power is even more important in a moment marked by pervasive hostility and so many legislative efforts to control various aspects of education, Ajayi-Lowo said.

Discussion of race and gender is not being limited only in grade schools. Wyoming has seen several attempts to defund gender and women’s studies programs at public colleges. Florida has a new law that severely restricts gender and women’s studies instruction and defunds initiatives related to diversity, equity and inclusion in the state university system. A similar bill has passed the Texas legislature and is awaiting signature from the governor. 

To Shoniqua Roach, an assistant professor of women’s studies and African American studies at Brandeis University, it makes sense that Spelman’s comparative women’s studies program would feel protected and safe during such politically tumultuous times. 

“They’re able to see themselves as critical stakeholders who have the agency to make changes.”

Esther Ajayi-Lowo, assistant professor, comparative women’s studies, Spelman College

“Black feminism was born out of impossible conditions,” Roach said. “Our field has only gotten more resilient in the face of chaos and the face of crisis.”

Roach said that many of the concepts being targeted by conservative lawmakers originate from Black feminist scholars, including the idea that Black people and people from other historically marginalized groups have had a different experience in the United States from others, and that they deserve systemic changes to prevent further mistreatment and to repair damage done. These ideas are core tenets of women’s studies and intersectional feminism, and challenges to them are not new.

“It’s a pretty creative, rigorous, resilient and incredible time for Black feminist theory, which doesn’t surprise me because as a field, we’ve always already been under siege,” Roach said. “I’m already excited to see the creativity that is born out of this chaos.”

Black feminist theory in part argues for human empowerment, but specifically for empowering Black women, one of the most marginalized groups in the United States, Roach said. She is seeing more scholars take advantage of the opportunity to share Black feminist thought beyond academia, which “is an incredible creative, political and intellectual achievement.”

Ariella Rotramel, a professor at Connecticut College and the vice president of the National Women’s Studies Association, believes political pushback comes as a direct result of social justice progress being made. 

For example, Rotramel said, if more people start acknowledging racism and its material effects on health and wealth, then it’s more likely to be addressed. And they see attempts to restrict gender-affirming health care for transgender children as evidence that there are enough parents that love and support their trans children for people to feel threatened by it, Rotramel said.

Rotramel said that they, like most educators, teach theories, and students do not have to agree with every single thing they teach.

“It’s a competing imagining of what our world should be,” Rotramel said. “Of course, I think you always have to believe that the best things about people and humanity will win and people will realize there are ways to care and ways to respect differences.” 

This story about Spelman women’s studies was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter.

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My time in education forever impacted the way I see the world. This is why when I began making a fictional film about college reunions, I couldn’t help reflecting on the real-life challenges in education that impede students, particularly Black students, from attending and graduating from college.

In 2021, at the height of the pandemic, I wrote a movie. The title is “College Reunion,” and I wrote on the subject because I was a year away from my own 20-year reunion at an HBCU, and the topic provided a unique opportunity to uplift Black women and spotlight Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

The main three Black women characters in the film are attending their 45th reunion, which puts them in their mid-60s. This is a demographic group that has been largely missing from mainstream movies.

As I began working on getting the film made, I thought more and more about another group that has been largely neglected: Black students in kindergarten through 12th grade have been dramatically left behind within our current educational system. The pandemic made things worse.

Chronic absenteeism has been a challenge for years in inner city schools. When schools closed their doors and went to remote learning, many students, especially those without reliable internet access, disappeared. When school doors reopened, many students simply did not return, or came back on an inconsistent basis. Hundreds of thousands of students are still unaccounted for three years into the pandemic. Of that number, more than 150,000 are Californians.

The numbers in California are especially staggering because Los Angeles is also home to the entertainment industry, where many of our country’s most influential stars work or live. In a city built on dreams, there is a stark contrast between the world we portray on screen and the reality within our school system.

Related: Thousands of kids are missing from school. Where did they go?

Before I began working on this film, I was a writer by night and an educator by day. I moved to Los Angeles to make movies and took what I thought would be a two-year detour into the classroom through Teach For America.

The organization recruits individuals, many of whom are recent college graduates, to teach for a minimum of two years in schools deeply affected by educational inequities. The thinking is that the new teachers will be so impacted by their experiences that they will use their newfound knowledge to become change agents for the educational system.

That is exactly what happened to me.

As I began working on this film about successful Black men and women returning to their college alma mater, the data from students currently in K-12 indicated that, without an intervention, college reunions would have fewer Black attendees in the future.

As I began working on this film about successful Black men and women returning to their college alma mater, the data from students currently in K-12 indicated that, without an intervention, college reunions would have fewer Black attendees in the future.

The team of independent filmmakers and educators we assembled to work on “College Reunion”believe that entertainers and educators are in a unique position to use our social capital and knowledge of the problem to call students who have been chronically absent back to school.

A small group consisting of our film crew and volunteers from the entertainment community tested our theory last month. We recorded a video telethon with the express purposes of highlighting both the issue of chronic absenteeism and the nonprofits who are supporting schools, while challenging viewers to call students in their communities back to school.

While the video livestreamed on Facebook, we called chronically absent students from one school and implored them to return to campus the following week.

Our efforts resulted in 27 percent of those students returning to school for at least one day. It was a start, but we need to and can do more.

If the hundreds of thousands of students who are entirely or partially disengaged from school do not return, the consequences will be far reaching for our country as a whole.Students who do not complete K-12 education have limited options as they reach adulthood.

As technology continues to phase out some jobs and the economy erases others, we run the risk of having a generation of students who don’t possess the basic educational skills needed to pursue job and career opportunities. This will exacerbate issues such as housing instability and unused potential.

The Black community has traditionally experienced these negative consequences at a disproportionately high rate.

Each of us has the power to do something about this problem today.If you are an educator at a K-12 institution, work with your school community to identify students who are still unaccounted for and use some of the suggestions on the “College Reunion” website to support students reentering their educational journey. If you are a person of influence, use your social media platforms and other means to remind the masses why education is crucial and why students should be in school. We can all learn more about our local school systems and find ways within our communities to support students on their educational journey.

Chronic absenteeism is a village-level problem that will take a collective approach to solve. If we all work together to call students back to the classroom, “College Reunion”can one day become a reality for our most vulnerable children, and we can literally change the world.

Carla M. McCullough, Ed.D., is a filmmaker, educational leader and the CEO of A Mighty Mac Productions. You can learn more about “College Reunion” the movie and the movement at www.acollegereunion.com.

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