The U.S. Supreme Court decision Thursday to determine latest limits on affirmative motion programs, essentially ending the consideration of race in college admissions, caused concern amongst fashion design school leaders.

In its ruling, the justices determined that Harvard and University of North Carolina’s admissions programs violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. An opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts noted that at Harvard, each application is screened by a “first reader,” who assigns a numerical rating in each of six categories: academic, extracurricular, athletic, school support, personal, and overall, and the primary reader can and does consider the applicant’s race. Throughout the method, race is taken into account. “The goal of the method, in line with Harvard’s director of admissions, is ensuring there isn’t a “dramatic drop-off” in minority admissions from the prior class,“ the ruling read.

The Supreme Court’s vote was 6-3 within the UNC case and 6-2 within the Harvard case. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, an undergrad and law school alum of Harvard, who had served on the board of overseers at Harvard, was recused from the Harvard case.

Design school leaders were concerned by the ruling.

Asked for comment, a School of Visual Arts spokeperson said, “Despite today’s SCOTUS decision, SVA is more committed than ever to fostering a various, equitable and inclusive community of artists.”

The Recent School’s president and university professor Dwight A. McBride posted that he was “deeply concerned by this decision, each personally and on behalf of our students —past, present, and future. I do know that a lot of you share this concern.”

“It’s difficult to overstate the impact this could have on campuses across the country. For many years, colleges have been in a position to use admissions as one tool to counteract the pervasive thread of discrimination and white supremacy woven into the material of our higher education system and, indeed, our society,” McBride continued. “The removal of this tool sends the harmful message that a various learning environment is dispensable. I couldn’t disagree more fervently. It’s a mission we cannot afford to provide up.”

Noting how next spring will mark the 70-year anniversary of the landmark decision of Brown vs. Board of Education, McBride said that he “like a lot of you,” is worried concerning the dismissal by the nation’s highest court of the values of diversity and inclusion. “I’m troubled by the recent pattern of Supreme Court decisions which have rolled back hard-won rights for racial minorities, women and the LGBTQ+ community. And I fear a return to an era that precedes the tremendous work activists have done to fight for these rights, particularly in education,“ he wrote.

Determined to “not let that occur,” The Recent School stays committed to inclusion and its belief that “a various student body is crucial to a wealthy learning experience. Somewhat, this decision makes these commitments stronger, and the work all of the more urgent.”

Core to those efforts is “a fundamental belief within the transformational power of education — and access to education — for individual lives and for the greater good of society. These beliefs have guided the work that I’ve been committed to throughout my profession, and they’re going to proceed to guide all of us at The Recent School in our work to keep our university on a path toward greater equity,” McBride said.

Pratt Institute’s president Frances Bronet also expressed how she was “deeply disenchanted” by the ruling and said the college’s community will stay true to founder Charles Pratt’s practice of welcoming “all no matter race, gender or socio-economic status.”

“As artists, designers and innovators, we all know that diversity fosters creativity. As educators, we consider that excellence requires all voices and positive change comes from the complete range of human experiences. Providing opportunities and constructing pathways is critical to achieving a more equitable world and that begins with access to education. From the opening of our Saturday Art School in 1897 to the Design Works High School opening this fall, Pratt has encouraged diverse students to pursue a creative education and grow to be changemakers of their communities,” Bronet wrote.

Going forward, Pratt will proceed to review each student’s admission application “holistically,” Bronet said. “We seek to create a community that reflects and helps to shape the world we live in, informed by the variability of experiences, personal histories, viewpoints and aspirations of all. This goal will remain present in our admissions process, which has all the time considered the range of experiences and circumstances of all our applicants.”

There are also plans to review Pratt’s policies and practices to make sure commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion are upheld, “at the same time as we work inside the bounds of the law. Nothing can change our core values, who we’re, what we consider in, and the way we function catalysts for meaningful change,” Bronet stated.

Marist College’s president Kevin Weinman noted in an internet post that “Marist has all the time and enthusiastically sought diversity in all its forms — race and ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age, socioeconomic status, political persuasion, and geography, amongst many others. We best achieve our mission by opening our doors to all who can take full advantage of the rigorous and high-touch type of education that we provide.” 

“Let me be clear: every student Marist has ever admitted has earned their right to review here. Actually, as our student body has grow to be more diverse in every way measurable, we’ve seen student quality increase across all dimensions.” 

“We are going to proceed to digest the scope and implications of this decision. For now, one thing holds true: we is not going to retreat from our mission of constructing a Marist education accessible to anyone who can succeed here, and we are going to proceed to pursue these goals to the best degree inside the confines of the law and judicial precedent,” Weinman wrote.

Joyce Brown, president of the Fashion Institute of Technology, described the choice as “a serious setback, not just for higher education but for the progress we seek nationally in creating systems that expand opportunities for access and inclusivity.”

She said in an announcement, “The mission of upper education is to research, articulate after which solve for the critical problems with the day.  At FIT, we pride ourselves in cultivating a wealthy community of diverse voices reflective of various backgrounds, culture and perspectives — based on different lived experiences.”

Brown continued, “As a member of the State University of Recent York, considered one of the most important public university systems on this planet and as an urban campus in Recent York City, some of the diverse cities within the nation, now we have an obligation to take care of an environment that reveres and respects the richness of differing points of view.  This can be a core value of our mission and vision.”

Taking the long view, Fordham School of Law professor Susan Scafidi speculated about how the choice’s reasoning is “also more likely to have a much wider effect on many programs designed to advertise diversity, equity, and inclusion in education, employment, and beyond.”

She said via email that the choice would require “a whole rethinking of the way to achieve and maintain diversity,” across the board beyond colleges and universities. “In 2020, corporations and organizations rushed to embrace DEI; in 2023, nearly every DEI initiative could have to be reexamined to make sure that it doesn’t offer employment opportunities, training, grants, partnerships, or other access on the idea of race alone.”

Scafidi continued, “Universities will do a number of the work of maintaining diversity within the talent pipeline, for instance by considering applicants’ stories of overcoming hardship, including racial discrimination, and never just race itself.  If the style industry hopes to take care of its recent progress in achieving greater representation, each on the catwalk and behind the scenes, it would also should devise latest and more subtle strategies for recognizing diverse talent.”