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The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling on race-conscious admissions is reverberating across higher education. Highly selective institutions that have long relied on affirmative action to boost enrollment of students of color are scrambling to redesign admissions policies to adhere to the ruling without undermining their attempts at fostering diversity. Several states and colleges are also now reassessing and eliminating scholarships and other financial aid programs that consider a student's race.
The Supreme Court's decision is a disappointing one, and I remain gravely concerned about the chilling effect it will have on diversity and inclusion efforts on campuses throughout the country. At the same time, it is important to remember that affirmative action is not the only battleground for improving equity in higher education. Just 6% of all undergraduates attend the kind of selective institutions where such policies were in place. There are far more avenues for building a good life in this country than attending elite colleges. We must better recognize the outsized role Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), predominantly Black institutions, and other minority-serving institutions play in helping students of color achieve economic and social mobility.
With that recognition must also come shifts in policy that ensure these underfunded institutions have the resources they need to live up to their promise. No matter how one feels about the Supreme Court's ruling or about affirmative action as a policy matter, the inequities within higher education are undeniable. It has never been more urgent that we reimagine the ways we support our students so that every learner has a fair shot at not just enrolling in college but graduating with a credential of value.
This requires not only looking beyond highly selective institutions but beyond admission and financial aid. While such policies remain immensely important, they are also just pieces of a larger puzzle. Much attention has been paid to improving access and affordability for students of color in recent decades, but challenges around completion and retention loom just as large. Access and completion are two sides of the same coin; strides on one front ultimately mean very little without strides on the other. At open access and other less selective public institutions — where higher education has made the greatest gains in improving access — completion rates have remained stubbornly low. Just 45% of Black students enrolled in four-year public universities graduate within six years.
It is a different story at our country's HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions. While HBCUs make up just three percent of U.S. colleges and universities, for example, they are responsible for nearly 20% of the nation's Black graduates. A recent working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that when HBCUs are compared to institutions that are similar in size, selectivity, finances, and socioeconomic demographics, Black HBCU students are 33% more likely to graduate than Black students at non-HBCUs.
And yet many of these institutions are severely underresourced. Over the past decade, according to a report released this month by The Century Foundation, Black land-grant universities have lost $200 million as a result of states declining to provide matching funds while fully funding white land-grant universities. Meanwhile, other kinds of minority-serving institutions such as predominantly black community colleges and Hispanic-serving institutions are even less acknowledged. Many are often left out of the conversation completely.
Even while contending with immense financial challenges and resource restraints, these colleges have much to teach other institutions as they fight to close equity gaps and guide all learners to the finish line with purpose and momentum. Laser-focused on completion, predominantly black community colleges and other minority-serving institutions are redesigning their policies and practices to more fully account for the lived experiences, aspirations, and needs of their learners. This, in turn, allows them to offer personalized support, academic coaching, and programs aimed at improving feelings of belonging.
I witness this shift firsthand in my role as President at a nonprofit focused on working with states to increase the number of Americans with career certificates or college degrees. There are two partners in particular that have shifted their approach to better account for the experiences of their learners.
One partner, for instance, has incorporated predictive analytics into its students' first-year experience. The approach draws upon students' demographics, academic history, and semester plans to inform targeted interventions and resources. In an initial pilot of the program, it was determined the institution achieved a 31% retention rate among students who were previously the least likely to be retained.
Another partner has implemented three, interconnected pathways — that the institution refers to as guided, career, and perpetual pathways — to support students from the moment they first arrive on campus through graduation and beyond. By emphasizing individualized career paths, this institution is increasing engagement, improving completion, and helping more graduates secure successful employment. Between 2017 and 2021, the college nearly doubled its on-time graduation rates.
Last year, 22 historically and predominantly Black community colleges partnered with Complete College America to launch a slate of new initiatives focused on improving the career and economic prospects of their students. These colleges are working to better align their degree programs with the needs of employers, as well as sharing innovations in both advising and wraparound supports related to food, housing, and transportation insecurity, as access and completion solutions.
The Supreme Court's decision marks an alarming step in the wrong direction for our country and its colleges and universities, but there is a path forward. We cannot allow the ruling to serve as the death knell of efforts to create a more equitable system of higher education. HBCUs, Historically Black Community Colleges (HBCCs), and other minority-serving institutions are finding new and innovative ways to help more students make their way to and through college no matter their backgrounds — and no matter the political headwinds that surround them. With greater investments and resources, they can continue to demonstrate how to restore higher education's promise as an engine of equity and prosperity.