Experts: SCOTUS affirmative action decision highlights diversity needs in higher ed

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

64% : Affirmative action has contributed to the rise in students of color attending colleges and universities, experts say.
60% : The average gap at the top dozen public universities with affirmative action was 6%.
56% : The Supreme Court decided Thursday to set new limits on affirmative action, striking down the current race-conscious admissions policies in place at University of North Carolina and Harvard University.
56% : Institutions that use affirmative action policies take an individual student's race or ethnicity into account during the college admissions selection process.
56% : The Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in 1978 in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, which cemented the place of affirmative action policies in college and university admissions.
55% : Supporters of affirmative action argue that using race as one factor among many in a holistic review of a student's attributes is not exclusionary or harmful to other students.
47% : The average Black-to-white student graduation rate gap at the top dozen public universities that do not use affirmative action was 10.1%, according to research from the University of California, Los Angeles.
46% : They argue affirmative action discriminates against Asian American and white applicants.
45% : Researchers fear the progress made in racial equity in higher education will be reversed, even though they say affirmative action has not been a perfect solution."Historically, some of these places like [the University of North Carolina], you literally couldn't go to UNC if you're Black," said Natasha Warikoo, a sociologist at Tufts University and researcher of racial inequity in education.
40% : Opponents of affirmative action say it violates the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial discrimination any place that receives federal funding.
38% : Nine states have banned affirmative action, and the decision affected their enrollment almost instantaneously: "the number of underrepresented minorities never gets back to pre-ban levels," said Warikoo.

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