Page 15 - BusinessWest August 7, 2023

“This doesn’t actually change our fundamental admission structure. But there are changes I think the industry can make to stop putting up additional barriers for certain populations of students.”
KERRY COLE
student demographic, diversity naturally thrives at AIC, and we must continue to serve this diverse population.”
Evolving Legacy
Kerry Cole, AIC’s director of Admissions, reiterated to Business- West that the college’s process will not change. “We have a holistic admissions process. We naturally have diversity within the student body, and we’re very fortunate, and we embrace that. So this doesn’t actually change our fundamental admission structure. But there are changes I think the industry can make to stop putting up additional barriers for certain populations of students.”
One of those, she said, is for colleges to start moving away from legacy admissions, which historically have not benefited minorities. Another is to recruit in all geographic areas, including low-income areas, because successful students can be found in all types of com- munities. “We heavily recruit in Hampden County, followed by Hart- ford County, and those are areas that are extremely diverse.”
Over the past decade, Subbaswamy noted, UMass Amherst
has significantly broadened its recruitment efforts across every demographic. “Since 2012, our Admissions team has recruited and received applications from underrepresented students from
66 additional high schools in Massachusetts alone. We have also partnered with more community-based organizations to help us recruit and enroll a more diverse class, including lower-income and first-generation students. We will also continue to work with our partners in the state and federal government to develop funding for pipeline programs and advocate for financial-aid investments.”
UMass and other institutions are doing this because of a shared belief that a diverse campus creates a sense of inclusion and belonging, which in turn promotes a healthy environment for everyone.
“We will continue to implement data-driven initiatives and pro- cedures to ensure students of all backgrounds experience a strong sense of belonging and inclusion in our community,” Subbaswamy said. “We want every prospective student, no matter their back- ground, to see their values reflected across the institution and rec-
ognize UMass as a place where they will thrive.”
Even absent the SCOTUS ruling, he added, “our commitment to
upholding our values of diversity, equity, and inclusion would drive us to deepen our investments in recruiting and welcoming students from diverse backgrounds.”
Dumay agreed, arguing that a diverse student body reaches into the community, creating a more robust Western Mass., and the Supreme Court’s ruling only strengthens Elms’s resolve to enhance representation of all kinds.
He conceded that the ruling mainly impacts colleges that admit only a small percentage of their applicants. At Elms, which admits all students who have demonstrated they can do the work and suc- ceed there, diversity efforts are a matter of attracting more appli- cants, as opposed to making tough decisions to admit or reject equally qualified students. “If you can do the coursework, regard- less of race, you are admitted. We do not use any race-conscious policies in our admissions.”
However, he emphasized that the court’s ruling narrowly focused on the use of race in admissions at Harvard University and the Uni- versity of North Carolina; it did not reject the importance of campus diversity itself, only certain means to achieve it.
“That is a great comfort to us because diversity is part of the Elms College mission statement,” Dumay went on. “The statement says that Elms serves a diverse student body in a nurturing educa- tional environment. That is part and parcel of our mission: to foster an atmosphere that is diverse.”
Benitez added that AIC’s mission is to educate next generation of a diverse regional workforce, making a diverse campus an issue of economic development.
“What do we want in a student body? What do we want our classes to look like?” Cole added, noting that AIC recently launched a guaranteed-admissions initiative to qualified students, designed to ensure a fair and transparent admissions process for students who meet eligibility
requirements.
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As opposed to race- based admissions prac-
Diversity
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