PA responds to Supreme Court’s ruling on Affirmative Action in higher education

The U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down the race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina as unconstitutional will have ripple effects far beyond higher education. At its core, this ruling undermines progress we have made as a country to create opportunities for everyone. While today’s decision does not impact Andover’s admission practices and policies, it could open the door for future legal challenges at the secondary school level.

At Andover, we will continue to uphold our founding ideal to educate youth from every quarter by welcoming an intentionally diverse community of students. And we will double down on support for holistic admission practices across education, knowing that our colleagues in higher education will work within these new constraints of the law to ensure access.

In the wake of the Court’s decision, our College Counseling team is prepared to support Andover students as they navigate their college options amid this new landscape. They will continue to work with students on how to describe those aspects of their personal development and life experiences that speak to who they are in this complicated world. Students reveal in many compelling ways where they come from, what they have accomplished, and what they will bring to their college campuses and the world at large. All of this—including their high school experience in a diverse community of peers—will continue to distinguish them. 

We are equally confident that leaders in higher education will thoughtfully respond to this ruling and continue to engage in admission practices that work to create communities that are diverse by every metric—not only race, but also socioeconomics, geography, religion, ideology, and all factors that enrich the intellectual life of any campus.

Looking years ahead, we are concerned that this decision could have unintended consequences beyond education. It raises fundamental questions around what it means to live in a free and equal society. History has shown that our country makes progress when it opens doors (voting rights, civil rights, access to quality healthcare). Affirmative action, for decades, has helped to build campus environments that challenge students and assure educational excellence by creating communities that aim to reflect the world in which they will live as adults.