The year after the Supreme Court barred affirmative action in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, Vanderbilt’s Black first-year enrollment plummeted nearly 50%. The Class of 2028 was comprised of only 6% African American students, down drastically from 11.5% in the Class of 2027 and far from the 14.1% peak in the Class of 2017.
For a university founded after the Civil War with the promise of bridging North and South, this represents a dangerous shift. It is a regression that strikes at the heart of Vanderbilt’s mission and America’s values. This shift from inclusion to exclusion, from diversity to uniformity, endangers our nation’s future and stifles the progress of the next generation.
Local costs for Vanderbilt
The loss of Black student enrollment carries immediate consequences. Research has long shown that diverse classrooms sharpen critical thinking and creativity, with recent studies even showing an uplift in GPAs for students in these environments. Additionally, while the full effects of this decision on diverse populations are yet to be seen, historical evidence from California’s Proposition 209 shows that underrepresented minority students are likely to be pushed into less selective colleges and experience declines in graduation rates, STEM degree attainment and future wages.
Vanderbilt risks its students graduating less prepared for success in an increasingly multicultural country and losing valuable perspectives — a key source of pride for Vanderbilt and driver of civil discourse.
For the Black students who remain, belonging is harder to find. Cultural centers and Black student organizations lose members and resources, weakening networks of support. As Co-President of Vanderbilt’s Black Business Student Association, I have seen firsthand how shifting policies and external pressure on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs have restricted our ability to provide professional development resources to students by eliminating career center funding once reserved for identity-based professional organizations.
A broader national regression
President Trump’s Executive Orders 14151 and 14173 directed federal agencies and contractors to dismantle DEI programs, and in conjunction with a memo to all recipients of federal funding from Attorney General Pam Bondi and a letter to Chancellor Diermeier from Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, these have pressured Vanderbilt to eliminate any program perceived as allocating resources specifically to diverse, and often in need, communities.
As a result, the effects of the drastic drop in African American enrollment are exacerbated by the alienation of those still on campus. These programs are not designed for preferential treatment but rather to correct historic and contemporary structural inequalities. Vanderbilt University, apart from isolated graduate admissions in the 1950s, barred Black students until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Sixty years later, inequalities remain nationwide: white households hold over six times the median wealth of Black households, Black students are 3.5 times more likely to attend chronically underfunded schools and Black Americans are subject to police violence and incarcerated at vastly higher rates than white Americans. These inequalities and many others, while less obvious, are ever-present and permeate health, housing and politics. Despite contemporary claims that “reverse racism” deserves more attention than systemic racism, the evidence clearly suggests the opposite.
Why it matters for America
These inequalities evidently require targeted solutions. An attack on programs designed to remedy these problems is an attack on the undeniable truth of America’s unequal history. Eliminating race-conscious programs and admissions denies the reality of the world we live in and the one we are moving toward. The United States is diversifying rapidly. By 2045, non- Hispanic white individuals are projected to comprise less than half the U.S. population, with growth driven by Hispanic, Asian, Black and multiracial communities. The multiracial population alone grew by 276 percent between 2010 and 2020.
If elite academic institutions like Vanderbilt fail to reflect this reality, they will produce graduates unprepared for the workforce and society they will enter. Diversity drives innovation, economic competitiveness and leadership pipelines; denial of its benefits will only limit our country’s progress politically, socially and economically. Economists at Georgetown University estimate that closing racial and socio-economic gaps in post-secondary educational attainment has the potential to inject nearly $1 trillion into the U.S. economy annually. Promoting diversity on college campuses is not only an educational imperative but an economic one.
A call to courage
This is not about granting blanket preference to one group. Holistic race and socio-economic conscious admissions are key to unlocking opportunity for underprivileged and marginalized populations, and university advancement programs designed for these populations are equally as important for their long-term success. By acknowledging historic and ongoing disadvantages faced by Black Americans, we reckon with our past and simultaneously contribute to a brighter future.
The precipitous drop in Black enrollment at Vanderbilt is a local crisis with national implications. Left unchecked, it signals a retreat from social mobility, innovation and the
multicultural reality of America’s future. Vanderbilt and other universities like it must take a courageous stand against policies that strip away diversity to secure the future excellence of higher education and the country itself.
