Black and Hispanic first-year enrollment dropped last fall at Pittsburgh’s two largest universities, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. This is the first incoming class since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions.
A Public Source analysis of first-year enrollment data from five schools — CMU, Pitt, Point Park University, Chatham University and the Community College of Allegheny County — revealed that while total enrollment increased at most schools, there was no consistent trend in enrollment of students of color.
CMU and Pitt experienced increases in Asian and white student enrollment alongside the decrease in Hispanic or Latino and Black students. Other schools, including Point Park and CCAC, saw growth in one or both of the latter demographics. Meanwhile, more students across some campuses are listed under another category: race or ethnicity unknown.
Before the Supreme Court decision in June 2023, race was a factor in student admissions decisions at some colleges and universities — mostly highly selective, private institutions like CMU. Taking race into account was meant to help campus diversity, and several schools said that without doing so, the number of marginalized students would nosedive.
Many scholars and higher education access advocates argued that race-conscious admissions were necessary for addressing historical inequities and increasing representation in leadership positions throughout various sectors.
However, the group Students for Fair Admissions — the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case — said the consideration of race instead led to discrimination against Asian-American students. Qualified applicants were passed up in favor of less-qualified Hispanic or Latino and Black students, according to SFFA.
While race was a factor for some schools, other admission criteria areas include class ranking, GPA, extracurricular activities, whether a student is the first in their family to attend college and where in the country or world a student resides.
There are also colleges like CCAC with open admissions, meaning everyone with a high school diploma or GED who applies will be accepted. The court’s decision would have little to no bearing on those schools.
Public Source sent questions to CMU, Pitt, Point Park and Chatham regarding new recruitment strategies and outreach to marginalized students. Alongside the 2023 decision, schools now face the risk of losing federal funding for considering race within any part of their operations. CMU was the only university to respond by publication.
“Carnegie Mellon University is committed to promoting academic excellence, expanding access and removing barriers to opportunity in education. These efforts remain central to CMU’s recruitment approach,” read a statement from university spokesperson Cassia Crogan.
Crogan mentioned in an email that partnerships with community-based organizations and counselors have been expanded, while financial aid outreach to prospective and newly admitted students is being enhanced. Through these initiatives, she said “an inclusive, engaged and supportive community” is created while “maintaining full compliance with the law.”
She did not address the decline in Black and Hispanic or Latino students.
James Murphy, the director of postsecondary policy at the nonprofit organization Education Reform Now, has tracked diversity on highly selective campuses, including CMU, after the end of race-conscious admissions. He found in October that most demographics stayed flat or decreased, but enrollment of Black students significantly decreased. At CMU, Black student enrollment in the first-year class fell by nearly 50%.
He also saw that the number of students who elected not to identify their race or ethnicity grew considerably. At CMU, Pitt and CCAC, the number of students whose race or ethnicity is unknown increased by roughly one-third to nearly half, depending on the school.
“The mystery, of course, is why?” Murphy said.
With race no longer able to be considered in admissions, he wondered, “What’s the risk? What’s the danger” in selecting an identity. For now, he said, it’s still too early to understand what the “unknown” number signals about overall enrollment trends. A big reason is the lack of data broken down by race and ethnicity for applicants and admitted students, both steps that precede enrollment.
“That’s an important part of the picture,” Murphy said. “Did Pitt get as many Black students applying? Maybe some students read this [Supreme Court] decision as, ‘Oh, they don’t want me. This is not even worth applying to,’ which would be unfortunate, but it’s a perfectly understandable reaction for a teenager or their parents to have.”
Public Source reached out to SFFA with questions about current enrollment findings, including the increase in students not selecting a race or ethnicity, and was referred to a recent YouTube video featuring the group’s president. In the video, SFFA President Edward Blum said how schools have implemented race-neutral admission policies is “a mystery right now” but that there has been “absolutely no significant decline in racial diversity” at a few highly-selective institutions.
Blum said that, in fact, “there’s a handful of schools that actually show greater African-American enrollment and a significant drop off … in Asian enrollment.” The group sent letters to Duke, Princeton and Yale Universities in September, questioning their admission policies after SFFA found decreases ranging from 2.2% to 6% in Asian-American student enrollment reported in the most recent class. The group mentioned the possibility of legal action.
When asked in the video what schools that wish to repair past harms committed against Black students should do without considering race, Blum recommended casting a wider net to students who are low-income, first-generation or raised in single-parent households.
Some studies have shown that without a substantial overhaul of recruitment and admission practices, replacing race-conscious admissions with class-conscious admissions wouldn’t increase racial diversity on campuses.
In December, colleges and universities will have to report demographic data for admitted students to the U.S. Department of Education for the first time. It’s unclear how education data collection and analysis will be handled following March layoffs at the department, which includes the National Center for Education Statistics.
The department did not respond to questions from Public Source by the time of publication about whether higher ed institutions will still have to report race and ethnicity of admitted students this year.
Another reason for a decrease in student-of-color enrollment could be challenges that occurred with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid [FAFSA] early last year. A glitchy rollout left many students unsure of the financial commitment when it came time to decide where to attend. This particularly affected those in historically marginalized communities where FAFSA completions sharply declined.
Murphy cautioned against making sweeping statements about enrollment right now, but also stressed the value of the numbers currently available. The one-year trend line “lets institutions see what’s happened in other institutions,” he said, and campuses that were able to maintain or deepen diversity could serve as examples to those that didn’t.
Maddy Franklin reports on higher ed for Pittsburgh’s Public Source, in partnership with Open Campus, and can be reached at madison@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by Bella Markovitz.
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