Mitigating Talent Pipeline Impacts of Affirmative Action’s Reversal Through Responsive Recruiting Strategies
Setting the Scene
In many ways, this September on college campuses is not much different from earlier years. Cohorts of first-year students have begun the exciting, though nerve-wracking tradition of arriving on campus, personalizing their dorm walls, and finally meeting their assigned roommates. However, one worrying difference has begun to emerge as more institutions release their 2024 enrollment statistics: the number of Black students entering elite colleges and universities around the country is declining.
This is a pattern that many racial equity advocates and higher ed professionals predicted, as the class of 2028 is the first after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn four decades of affirmative action. As TA and HR professionals, what downstream effects can we expect on workplaces? We consider that question in this blog, while providing proactive ways for employers to strengthen their commitment to inclusive hiring despite new barriers.
Demystifying Affirmative Action
There’s been significant public discourse surrounding the recent Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, so it’s important to revisit the original intent of the policy. Initially implemented to help remedy historical inequities faced by marginalized groups, particularly Black Americans, affirmative action was designed to provide access to institutions of social and economic mobility. It permitted colleges to consider race as one factor among many in a qualified candidate’s application. However, it did not allow the use of racial quotas.
In their 6-3 ruling last June, the Supreme Court decided that considering race in admissions, regardless of intention, was discriminatory and thus unconstitutional. As a result, colleges could no longer make admissions decisions based on race, but they could still take into account a student’s life experiences, which race could factor into. While some predicted this would decrease Black student enrollment and increase those of more over-represented racial groups, an open question remained: would admissions committees find other ways to maintain progress toward racial equity?
Initial Enrollment Patterns
While some institutions, like Yale and UVA, have seen steady Black student enrollment post-ruling, they appear to be outliers. Social scientists suggest that overall, Black student enrollment is declining, while socioeconomic diversity is on the rise. This shift reflects new strategies by admissions committees, such as increasing financial aid and recruiting from lower-income communities. However, relying predominantly on socioeconomic status may inadvertently reduce the number of Black students overall, as admissions spots go to economically disadvantaged individuals across various racial identities.
This increase in socioeconomic diversity may seem like celebratory news at first glance, but poses clear risks to recent gains in Black representation at colleges and universities. While intersectional marginalization exists and is a significant part of this conversation, early data suggests that primarily using socioeconomic status to drive diversity in college admissions may increasingly lead schools to give spots that would have previously gone to Black students to socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals of varying racial identities. There may be more low-income Black students than before, but the net effect is a lower number of Black students overall.
The increased recognition and support of students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds is commendable. Yet, given that Black Americans are already underrepresented in higher education and the white-collar workforce, declining Black student enrollment poses a challenge for developing racially diverse talent pipelines. TA and HR professionals must adopt responsive strategies to ensure equitable representation continues, both in college recruiting and workforce hiring practices.
In the Workplace
Even though affirmative action rules do not directly affect private workplaces, organizations committed to diversifying their workforces should proactively plan for trickle-down effects. Prestige bias, or preferences for individuals with backgrounds that give a perception of quality, harm inclusive hiring efforts when employers screen for or unintentionally show partiality towards graduates of elite institutions. If fewer Black students graduate from top schools because of affirmative action’s repeal, and hiring stakeholders prioritize hiring from such institutions, then there will likely be even fewer Black Americans in the white-collar workforce in years to come, further exacerbating inequity. Employers committed to inclusive hiring can proactively mitigate potential effects by taking the following actions:
Stay informed: Data on enrollment impacts of the reversal of affirmative action is still limited, meaning that trends could continue to take shape or shift over time as more schools release data. More than ever, it’s important for early talent hiring stakeholders to stay informed about trends in college admissions.
Address prestige bias: Research has shown that graduating from an elite institution has a trivial effect on employee performance. Instead of looking at where a prospective employee has gone to school, look at what experiences they’ve cultivated that make them particularly fit for the job at hand. Conduct thorough training with all hiring managers and recruiters to make sure everyone is aware of the prevalence of prestige bias and its associated harms.
Diversify sourcing strategies: Increase your organization’s investments in Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs). Organize recruiting events or build ties with student organizations on campus to increase awareness of opportunities at your company. HBCUs around the country, like Howard and Florida A&M University, have been reporting increasing application rates since the racial reckoning of 2020, and this incline has only become steeper after affirmative action’s repeal. In addition, funding for these institutions has also been on the rise, allowing them to increase their resources and provide even stronger educational opportunities for students than before.
Establish internship programs focused on Black talent: Refer to the perhaps most notable of these initiatives, Google’s Building Opportunities for Leadership and Development (BOLD) program, which identifies promising students of historically underrepresented backgrounds, regardless of their college’s ranking. Organizations in industries with particularly grave underrepresentation of Black talent, like tech, can especially benefit from such initiatives.
The repeal of affirmative action is just one of the numerous barriers that have risen in response to shifting political attitudes towards DEI. It is important now more than ever for organizations to reaffirm their commitment to building diverse workplaces, and double down on proactive sourcing strategies to mitigate likely slippage in Black representation at elite colleges and universities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y-BXL7tstc
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/30/us/black-enrollment-affirmative-action-amherst-tufts-uva.html
https://www.epi.org/publication/racial-representation-prof-occ/
https://www.google.com/about/careers/applications/programs/bold/
About ModelExpand
ModelExpand is a strategic workplace advisory firm that helps companies put their ideals into action. We partner with organizations to implement, operationalize, and scale their Culture and People initiatives in a way that improves performance across the organization. The ModelExpand team is composed of people from all walks of life. The diversity of the team’s lived experiences, robust industry knowledge, and research acumen fuel ModelExpand’s innovative and tailored solutions. ModelExpand’s work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes and CultureAmp.