A Letter from the President of the American Academy

In August 2023, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences convened a group of more than forty university presidents, provosts, senior administrators, and experts for a candid, forward-looking discussion among colleagues who shared effective policies and strategies for accelerating progress toward building an equitable and diverse higher education system, an issue that impacts not only our students and their campuses, but all of American society.

The impetus for the meeting was the June 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and v. University of North Carolina, which bans the consideration of applicants’ racial status in admissions decision-making but continues to permit the consideration of how a student’s race has come to shape their inspirations, aspirations, knowledge, skills, and other lived experiences. 

This exploratory meeting was made possible by the support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Mellon Foundation. I greatly appreciate their support.

I am also grateful to the cochairs of the meeting, Kim Wilcox, chancellor of the University of California, Riverside, and Joanne Berger-Sweeney, president of Trinity College, for lending their time and sharing their own campus experiences as their institutions adapted to the ruling. President Berger-Sweeney provided tangible examples of how her institution was navigating and responding to the Supreme Court ruling now that consideration of applicants’ racial status can no longer play a role in efforts to maintain and work toward diversity and equity. Chancellor Wilcox shared how his institution responded and moved forward in the wake of a long-standing state ban on affirmative action in California.

I also thank EducationCounsel for providing an expert overview of the new legal context of higher education admissions. Encouraging participants to adopt an innovator’s problem-solving, mission-driven mindset, they provided legal analysis of the ruling and highlighted existing and new strategies that campuses can implement to successfully navigate the new legal design parameters while still advancing efforts to promote and increase diversity. I extend my thanks to the American Council on Education for sharing informative examples of effective higher education leadership across the country. Finally, my thanks to the tireless leaders and experts who came together to share their expertise and engage in rigorous and respectful debate so that others can learn from their experiences as they navigate this new legal environment.

We look forward to hosting additional timely and engaging conversations that address the critical issues higher education leaders face today and into the future.

Sincerely,
David W. Oxtoby
President, American Academy of Arts and Sciences