Racial Diversity, Legitimacy, and the Citizenry: The Impactof Affirmative Action Bans on Graduate School Enrollment

Abstract

This study uses data from the CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees and a methodology that supports causal inference to examine the effects of affirmative action bans in Texas, California, Washington, and Florida on graduate student of color enrollment. The findings show that the bans have reduced by 12.2% the average proportion of graduate students who are underrepresented students of color. Given that graduate education is an important pathway for positions of power and influence in our nation, these findings have broad implications for higher education policies that seek to further national educational and democratic goals. They should also help inform legal determinations in cases concerning the constitutionality of affirmative action-related policies.

The Partial Deinstitutionalization of Affirmative Action in U.S. Higher Education, 1988 to 2014

“…Research on the effects of bans (i.e., stark drop-offs in minority enrollments) has been limited to public universities in states with bans (Long and Tienda 2008;Howell 2010;Garces 2012). Thus, it has not captured diffuse effects of the anti-affirmative action movement.…”

“…A strong finding across studies is that affirmative admissions is especially effective at moving African American students into the most prestigious universities (Bowen and Bok 1998;Alon 2015). Another major finding is that bans on the consideration of race lower African American enrollments at top public schools (Long and Tienda 2008;Howell 2010;Garces 2012).…”

Holistic Admissions After Affirmative Action

“…In the mid-1990s and early 2000s, a number of states began eliminating the use of affirmative action in higher education admissions (Backes, 2012;Garces, 2012Garces, , 2013Long, 2007;Pusser, 2004). California, Texas, Washington, Florida, Georgia, and Michigan were the first to enact such bans.…”

The Meaning of Ethnic Equality in Scandinavian Anti-Discrimination Legislation

“…Bowen & Bok 1999;Bowen, Kurzweil & Tobin 2005), to graduate programmes (Garces 2012) and to employment (Heath 2014) have been effective in creating opportunities for persons of colour. These types of race-based measures have particularly been utilized in national contexts where racial boundaries have historically been clearly delineated, for example through legal definitions of racial difference, with related restrictions on civil rights.…”