Progressive judges have long argued that colleges should be able to give racial preferences in admissions to promote racial diversity. But what if racial diversity has no benefits? A study says students are actually less happy at racially diverse institutions. “The results indicate that students at more racially diverse institutions are less happy. They report lower levels of positive emotional well-being and higher levels of negative emotional well-being and of negative life,” notes John Rain. The study is titled, “Race, Class, Gender, and the Happiness of College Students,” by two researchers at Hamilton College. As they explain in their study,
Using data from students at 25 selective colleges from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshman (NLSF), we…investigate college characteristics that are correlated with student happiness and find that students report higher levels of happiness at schools that are more racially homogeneous, have lower tuition, and fewer students that have financial need. We show that fraternity dominance reduces the negative impact of greater racial diversity on student happiness, possibly because fraternities allow students to reduce the incidence of cross-racial interactions.
If racial diversity doesn’t improve student happiness, then that’s an addition reason for colleges to follow the law, which explicitly forbids using race in college admissions, rather than giving minority students a racial preference in admissions. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act categorically bans using race as a factor in admissions, stating that “No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” (See 42 U.S.C. 2000d).
So colleges shouldn’t consider race in admissions. The Supreme Court was wrong to let colleges consider race in admissions in a 2003 ruling that made up a “diversity” exception that allowed colleges to make some decisions based on race to promote racial “diversity.” Later, the Supreme Court was right to forbid colleges from considering race in a 2023 decision. That ruling against Harvard more closely followed the language of the Title VI law that Congress passed in 1964.
