Fighting Back the Chill

While the climate for students of color at public institutions in states where affirmative action has been curtailed is brisk, several neighboring private institutions are taking a ‘your-loss-is-our-gain' approach to the ‘opportunity.' 
Though they lament the growing movement to dismantle affirmative action programs, admissions directors at private institutions across the nation see a positive side to the current climate of legal challenges.
"We're kind of excited about the opportunity because we may be able to provide access and engage students of color and ethnic minorities in ways we haven't been able to in the past," says  Ken Cornell, director of undergraduate admissions at Seattle Pacific University. "We're not changing our selection criteria at all."
In two West Coast states, public higher education institutions have been forced to disregard race as a factor in admissions after the voter referendums Initiative 200 in Washington and Proposition 209 in California passed in 1998 and 1996, respectively. However, Seattle Pacific University and other private institutions in Washington and California aren't required to follow the new laws.
"Why would we change our policies?" notes Richard Vos, dean of admissions and financial aid at Claremont McKenna College. "We've always had a commitment to affirmative action, and now because some students perceive that the University of California system is perhaps not as welcoming as it was a few years ago, more students are now thinking of going to the private [colleges]. The UC's loss is our gain."
Claremont McKenna — located in Claremont, Calif., and part of the Claremont colleges complex — is a small institution, with just 274 students in 1998's entering freshman class. Yet its enrollment of Black students is up 100 percent since 1996 — from nine to 18 students. Black students comprised less than 4 percent of the entering class in 1996, when 9 percent of Black applicants were accepted. Thirteen percent of Black applicants were accepted last year, and they now comprise 6.5 percent of the freshman class.