Description

In June 2023, the Supreme Court effectively ended race-conscious admissions practices with their decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. (SFFA) v. President & Fellows of Harvard College (Harvard) and SFFA v. University of North Carolina (UNC), Nos. 20-1199 & 21-707. The Court 6–3 ruling held that Harvard and UNC admissions programs, which account for race at various stages in the process, violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In light of this decision, the institutional policies, practices, and discourses surrounding affirmative action have changed drastically.

The effects of this ruling are already apparent. Some colleges and universities have seen a substantial decrease in enrollment among Black students (see also Inside Higher Education). And, now, Students for Fair Admissions, whose lawsuits against Harvard and UNC led the Supreme Court to strike down race-conscious admissions, has placed Duke University “on notice” as they believe Duke may be “circumventing the Supreme Court’s decision.” Yale and Princeton received similar correspondence.

These scenarios beg the questions, (1) what are the legal ramifications of this Supreme Court decision, (2) what consideration should be given to lawsuits that may follow, and (3) how should institutions prepare to continue to lead for DEI in higher education in the face of resistance? This webinar and book talk will address some of these inquiries.

Dr. David J. Luke’s Affirmative Action and Black Student Success is a concrete and comprehensive exploration into diversity programs and initiatives on college campuses and their impact on Black student success and outcomes. As stated by Dr. Alford Young Jr. while offering a review of Luke’s book, “the book offers much to contemplate about whether and how diversity policy can make a difference in higher education institutions. Luke’s case analyses encourage deep reflection about whether diversity initiatives that are exclusively based on recognizing and celebrating difference truly result in durable changes in the demographic makeup of student and faculty bodies.”

In this book talk, Drs. David Luke and Alford Young engage in a praxis centered discussion that will address affirmative action, diversity initiatives designed to support Black students (and, when relevant, Black faculty), and various interconnected topics.

Panelists

David J. Luke, Chief Diversity Officer at the University of Michigan-Flint

A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Dr. David J. Luke earned bachelor's degrees in sociology and accounting from Grand Valley State University, and worked as a certified public accountant primarily conducting financial audits of governmental agencies and nonprofits before returning to higher education to study sociology at the University of Kentucky. Currently, Dr. Luke works as chief diversity officer at the University of Michigan-Flint, where his research, broadly on multiracial organizations, informs his work. Prior to returning to Michigan, Luke worked in various roles with the now-defunct Office for Institutional Diversity at the University of Kentucky. He frequently presents at national and international conferences including the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, where he completed the prestigious Chief Diversity Officer Fellows Program. Luke has also served as a speaker at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education, where he serves on the National Advisory Council, as well as the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association and the Society for the Study of Social Problems, where he is currently serving as vice president.

Alford Young, Jr., Professor of Sociology, Afroamerican and African Studies, and Faculty Director of the Anti-Racism Collaborative at the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan

Alford A. Young, Jr. is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the Department of Sociology and a professor of African and African American studies, with a courtesy appointment at the Ford School. He serves as associate director of U-M's Center for Social Solutions and faculty director for scholar engagement and leadership at Michigan's National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID). He has pursued research on low-income, urban-based African Americans, employees at an automobile manufacturing plant, African American scholars and intellectuals, and the classroom-based experiences of higher-education faculty as they pertain to diversity and multiculturalism. He employs ethnographic interviewing as his primary data collection method. His objective in research on low-income African American men, his primary area of research, has been to argue for a renewed cultural sociology of the African American urban poor. Young received an MA and PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago.