Universities and their computer science and engineering programs have been striving for years to boost the diversity of their student population, achieving varied levels of success. The schools are a pipeline of talent for tech companies trying to assemble teams representing the diversity found in their customer base and the broader public.
So the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling that bans the consideration of race when admitting students has some higher education leaders anxious about the fallout as legal experts determine which policies are within the law.
“We look at the application as a full dossier. And we look for reasons to admit a student.”
Andrew Brewick, WSU’s director of admissions.
In Washington state, public universities have been prohibited from using race in admissions since the passage of Initiative 200 in 1998. The court’s June ruling extends affirmative action restrictions to private universities and could add new limitations to public schools.
But leaders are vowing to continue building diversity at their institutions.
“We, as admissions officers, can be creative in how we evaluate our students. We have a lot of different factors and variables at our fingertips that we can use to analyze and assess,” said Andrew Brewick, Washington State University’s director of admissions.
Many universities use what is known as a holistic admissions process that considers a student’s grade point average, courses taken, whether they’re the first generation in their family to attend college, socioeconomic status, extracurricular activities, and personal essays that can include cultural, racial and ethnic details to help explain their academic journey.
It’s a misconception, officials said, that universities use quotas for racial diversity and simply accept a student if they check a certain box. Rather, institutions say they use wide-ranging factors to create a picture of who a student is. Diversity encompasses much more than race, educational leaders said, and factors such as financial resources and education level of family members are key considerations.
Brewick calls his team “academic archaeologists” who sift through transcripts, essays and other data. “We look at the application as a full dossier,” he said. “And we look for reasons to admit a student.”
Admissions leaders worry the court decision will lead underrepresented students to assume the ruling has torpedoed their opportunities and not bother applying. They're also concerned the universities will be intimidated and scuttle efforts to recruit and retain diverse students, mistakenly fearing the programs are illegal and putting them at risk of lawsuits.
"We desperately want communities to know that higher ed writ large is still going to be making every effort it can to try and make connections in those communities that are trying to lift students up," said James Miller, dean of admissions for Seattle University, a private institution that was not ruled by I-200 but will be impacted by the Supreme Court decision.
"That's the thing that's most terrifying about this," he said, "the chilling effect on communities who need higher ed for [the] transformation of futures."
Paul Seegert, the University of Washington's director of admissions, said the school was evaluating its admissions process in light of the ruling. He echoed the fears of a chilling effect — which he witnessed following I-200's passage.
In addition to Washington, eight other states previously barred affirmative action, including Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Oklahoma.
Seegert has some advice for schools that are new to the ban. "Have conversations," he said, "with colleagues at universities that have already been under these restrictions for years to hear ideas about things that work and don’t work.”
Continue reading to learn more about how Seattle University, the city's largest private university, and the state's largest public universities — WSU and UW — are approaching their admissions.
Seattle University
As a private Jesuit school, Seattle University was not subject to I-200's restrictions. Regardless, Miller said the school has not used race and ethnicity quotas for enrollment, but sought a diverse student body "to reflect the identities and experiences of our community."
That's important for the overall student population as well as those studying technical subjects, said Amit Shukla, dean of the university's College of Science and Engineering.
"Our graduates are going out there to solve the grand problems," Shukla said. "And to solve the grand problems, we need diversity of thought, diversity of background, and diversity of perspective."
That starts with the university's student recruitment process. It has relationships with area public schools; runs an outreach effort called the Seattle University Youth Initiative; and partners with organizations such as Minds Matter, Rainier Scholars and College Possible to connect with underrepresented and low-income students.
The university's college application allows a student to share personal information relating to their educational background — including race, ethnicity and culture — for what it says are good reasons.
If an applicant has a strong cultural identity and affinity with a community that they share as part of the explanation for why they'll be a successful student, Miller argues that has the same merit as an applicant who calls out their experience as an athlete or debate champion or any other factor.
Not allowing race and ethnicity disclosures would violate their First Amendment rights, he added.
"When a student brings up who they are," Miller said, "I feel confident that we're able to utilize that information."
Washington State University
WSU is a land grant university with a main campus in the Eastern Washington city of Pullman, plus four branch campuses.
The Morrill Act, which created WSU and other rural institutions of higher ed, explicitly says the schools "are to provide educational opportunities to the sons and daughters of toil," Brewick said. He loves that potential for elevating a student's — and their family's — socioeconomic status.
To help fulfill that mission, WSU is in a consortium that includes Eastern Washington University, Central Washington University, Western Washington University and the Evergreen State College. The five set GPA and coursework criteria that if achieved, guarantees a student's admission to all of their public institutions.
Now in its second year, the program accepted 12,000 students from the 66 participating Washington schools and districts. The consortium plans to keep growing the program.
"Students who otherwise would not have factored higher education into their future get a letter from the [universities'] Council of Presidents and it says, 'Your admission is guaranteed to the following five institutions,'" Brewick said. Students who don't hit that criteria can still apply and be accepted.
Speaking at a recent space travel and exploration summit, Mary Rezac, dean of WSU's Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture, noted the college drew students who are racially diverse, first generation, and from socioeconomically disadvantaged families. She highlighted the importance of that achievement.
"If we're going to be successful in space," Rezac said, "we will be the most successful if we have all the voices at the table contributing to that conversation."
University of Washington
The UW admissions process tries to identify "educational headwinds" that capture the challenges a student has confronted in their academic accomplishments, Seegert said. The university, which is the state's largest, also has dropped the use of SAT scores and letters of recommendation, which can unfairly advantage students of means and opportunity.
But it's the recruitment process that is most important to building diversity, Seegert said.
The school's Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity, while not a part of admissions, partners with them to forge relationships with area schools and college counselors. It helps first-generation and lower-income students see their potential as UW students, Seegert said, possibly opening their eyes to opportunities they didn't know existed.
The UW's Paul G. Allen School for Computer Science and Engineering has additional outreach, targeting high school students and teachers. It offers summer programs such as Changemakers in Computing that brings students from "systemically marginalized backgrounds" to campus for a month of mentoring and instruction. The school also has programming to help incoming freshmen who need additional support.
"Diversity matters in tech because design — whether of buildings or of software — is an inherently creative process; each of us brings our unique perspective to the process," said Ed Lazowska, a long-time Allen School professor. "If there are perspectives that are unrepresented or underrepresented, you arrive at an inferior solution."
Even with outreach, it's still difficult to create a student population reflecting the state's diversity across a multitude of factors, Seegert said. Students aren't always getting the education they need in elementary and middle school to be ready for classes in high school that fulfill minimal university requirements.
"As a state," he said, "we have a long way to go to have more students even prepared for college."
Editor's note: Story updated to correct race and ethnicity data for the University of Washington's Seattle campus.
