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THREAD. Admissions officer here 🙋🏾♀️ IMO Harvard/UNC opinion is much narrower than I expected it to be and impact will be much less than I see a lot of people suggesting -- and possibly give institutions MORE ability to curate classes based on diversity interests 1/
2. The implicit question here and the one the justices disagree on is this: Can race be a proxy for experience? Harvard/UNC/dissent says yes, majority says no, these can be bifurcated: race can't be a proxy, but an individual story of how race has shaped person CAN be considered
3. There are implications here: It means that applicants whose identity is shaped by race will need to articulate that explicitly in order for it to be taken into account. This is an added burden on the applicant. But, most apps include a supplemental diversity essay already
4. However, it seems to me that in making more explicit *how* a students' background impacts experience/perspective, schools will have a much easier time DEFENDING why race mattered in admitting that person...and test scores, etc. become less of the comparison point
5. My point is that this decision seems to be giving MORE latitude for subjective and holistic admissions decisions, as long as they are defensible on a case by case basis. It becomes harder to argue that X should not have been admitted over Y, as SFFA did here
6. Other implication is that institutions can't monitor overall racial composition of a class in admissions process (though it may in other respects, i.e., gender, geography, socioeconomics, etc.). So "diversity in aggregate" (representation) can't be a conscious consideration
7. This might be the more problematic point, but it's notable that Harvard/UNC did not seem to be arguing that there is an inherent diversity benefit by having a class racial composition mirror the larger society or applicant pool from which it draws. Not sure why they didn't
8. But in the end, this doesn't categorically bar consideration of race (which it could have), and it is limited to admissions process: Doesn't seem to bar schools from increasing diversity recruitment based on race, or having yield programs targeted for admitted minorities
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