Last Friday evening, a U.S. Department of Education letter sent to colleges across the nation reaffirmed the ruling of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and threatened to take federal funding from schools that still practice race-based “admissions, financial aid, hiring, training, and other institutional programming.”
The letter applies to both public and private institutions.
Dr. Dottie King, president and CEO of Independent Colleges of Indiana (ICI), a nonprofit association representing 29 schools, said private institutions receive federal funding through student financial aid, grants and endowments. Most of a private school’s budget relies on money from student tuition while the rest comes from endowments and fundraising.
If students cannot get federal financial aid, King said the impact would be dramatic.
“We are very dependent on the student loan program,” King said. “I spend a lot of my time advocating for those things.”
King recognized that while it would be detrimental to private schools if the federal government stopped giving out loans to institutions they deem are not following federal law, Indiana’s private schools are safe.
“You are in the best place you can be,” she said. “The private schools are almost all formed in mission, and the mission gives a lot of protection to the independent schools to go about educating and assisting their students.”
The U.S. Department of Education’s “Dear Colleague” letter's main message was not to use race as a primary determinant in admitting a student to a school— this rule was established by the nation’s highest court in the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case in 2023 and, according to King, did not change anything at Indiana’s independent schools.
“None of our schools were doing that,” she said.
King said one of the reasons Indiana schools do not have race-based admissions is because state institutions are not extremely selective.
For example, the 2023 Harvard Law School acceptance rate was 9.6%. In 2022, general admission to colleges in Indiana was between 52% and 100% of applicants.
King shared the following hypothetical situation: If a private nursing school in Indiana were looking at the application of a white a student and a minority student and they were equally highly qualified, the school would admit both students.
“I wouldn’t try to pick between them,” King said. “I would take both.”
She added that while race cannot be the primary determinant in admitting a student, colleges are still allowed to consider a student’s ethnic background.
This begs the question, if Indiana’s private schools, and other schools in the nation, are already carrying out admissions processes correctly, then why did the Department of Education send a letter Friday night?
King said it is likely because of the change in presidential administration.
“I think the letter is basically saying that this administration endorses that decision,” she said.
In 2023, when Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard ruled that race should not be the determining factor in college admissions, President Joe Biden, who was in office at the time, said he did not support the decision, which was made by a conservative majority court.
In contrast, current President Donald Trump celebrated the ruling, telling ABC, “This is the ruling everyone was waiting and hoping for and the result was amazing. It will also keep us competitive with the rest of the world. Our greatest minds must be cherished and that’s what this wonderful day has brought. We’re going back to all merit-based—and that’s the way it should be.”
Trump has continued his outspokenness in the form of executive orders signed early in his second term, one ending federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
While some might interpret the “Dear Colleague” letter as a threat to DEI offices in higher education, King said she did not think the letter would shut them down unless they would not allow individuals of a certain race to enter or be a part of the office.
“If you’re creating a program that helps students, let it help all students,” she said. “And if more of one kind of student is in it, then that’s OK because it is still open to everybody. … As long as we can have this discourse where we really talk about things, and even if our voices get raised because we’re passionate, but we end up liking each other at the end of the day, I think something really good could come out of listening to one another.”
During a student-proctored forum at Franklin College Thursday night, audience members worried that although the letter might not impact them now, there could be additional guidance from the U.S. Department of Education. Some students said they wanted the school to implement safeguards for its Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) in the event that DEI programs are outlawed at all colleges.
King ended her conversation with TheStatehouseFile.com by sharing a reassuring message to Indiana’s private college and university students.
“I’m keeping a cautiously optimistic posture,” she said. “Our schools already do it (admissions) so darn well, and so fairly, I think we have little to worry about.”