Colleges and universities across the country are looking for ways to increase diversity on their campuses without considering race in admissions.
In response to and support of these efforts, the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights issued a report earlier this month describing what is being done in different states across the country.
Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it legal to consider race in admissions last June, schools across the country are still looking for alternate means to increase the diversity of their campuses, which they consider an integral part of higher education.
Penn still considers race as part of its admissions standards, but focuses on a number of other issues to increase diversity as well.
In releasing the report, the department hopes to "stimulate thinking and education across the country" and to "provide a constructive resource" for other schools hoping to achieve diversity, said Ken Marcus, head of the Office of Civil Rights.
Some of the initiatives made to increase diversity on campuses without considering race include "providing preferences on the basis of socioeconomic status ... [and] targeting students from schools who traditionally have not been 'feeder schools' for those institutions," according to the Department of Education Web site.
Schools in Texas, California and Washington have also created special admissions plans for students who finish at the top of their class, and other states are following suit with similar plans.
"There are any number of different approaches to achieving diversity," and the Department of Education hopes to make those known to other schools, Marcus said. This is a "field that is continually expanding. ... Even in the last few weeks, new information has been gathered."
Although officials at Penn have instituted some similar changes as a means to increase diversity on campus, race is still a consideration for admission.
Penn has "continued to use race as an element, but not the [main] element, in admissions," Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson said.
According to Stetson, other issues, such as socioeconomic status, are considered for this purpose.
This information is gathered through the application that each student fills out. Although information about household income is not asked for explicitly on the application, admissions officers approximate socioeconomic status based on the amount of education applicants' parents have and where they are employed.
Admissions at Penn considers these aspects of each applicant's background in order to "allow every element of a student's background to be considered" and to "make the class as interesting as possible," Stetson said.
Despite the recent Supreme Court ruling, Penn has seen some changes to its admissions policy in recent years, in so far as race is only one of many elements considered, but 20 years ago, it may have been the defining element, Stetson said.
The Department of Education report, called "Achieving Diversity: Race-Neutral Alternatives in American Education," is supplementary to a report issued last year dealing with the same issue. More reports containing information describing new efforts made by schools across the country are expected in the coming years.
