Trump administration drops Obama-era affirmative action guidelines promoting diversity in universities

'Learning environments comprised of students from diverse backgrounds provide an enhanced educational experience for individual students,' says guidance

Universities have already pledged to stick with their admissions policies in spite of the Trump administration’s plan to scrap the Obama-era policies (Reuters)

The Trump administration has scrapped Obama-era policies promoting diversity in universities known as affirmative action.

Donald Trump’s decision has been viewed as an indicator the federal government may soon challenge Harvard University’s admissions practices and nudge other schools to shelve race-orientated policies

The Justice Department announced it was revoking 24 federal guidance documents that it considered “unnecessary, outdated, inconsistent with existing law, or otherwise improper”.

Seven of those were documents issued jointly with the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights under the Obama administration that called on school superintendents and colleges to think about race when making efforts to diversify their campuses.

“Learning environments comprised of students from diverse backgrounds provide an enhanced educational experience for individual students,” the guidance reads.

“By choosing to create this kind of rich academic environment, educational institutions help students sharpen their critical thinking and analytical skills.”

The guidance comprises different methods to encourage diversity – such as giving admission preferences to students from specific schools based on demographics.

The Obama-era guidance replaced the Bush-era view that did not encourage affirmative action.

That guidance had been taken down from the government website during the Obama administration but it has now resurfaced.

Universities have already pledged to stick with their admissions policies in spite of the Trump administration’s plan to scrap the policies.

“Four decades of case law make clear that race and ethnicity can be one of many factors that universities can consider during the admissions process,” Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, said in a statement.

”Public universities will continue to operate in accordance with the constitution, state law, and past court rulings to ensure they appropriately foster a diverse campus to the benefit of all.”

The move comes as a court battle over Harvard’s admissions policies has intensified, with the Ivy League institution facing a discrimination lawsuit alleging it limited admissions for Asian-Americans.

The lawsuit against Harvard currently filed by the Students for Fair Admissions alleges the university holds Asian-

American applicants to an unfairly high admissions standard.

Harvard is also currently being investigated over racial discrimination allegations by the Justice Department.

In April, the department called for the public disclosure of the Ivy League college’s admissions practices.

Harvard argued it “does not discriminate against applicants from any group, including Asian-Americans”. According to the university website, Asian-Americans currently make up 22.2 per cent of students.

Academic affirmative action – referred to as positive action in Britain – is the policy of protecting members of groups that are known to have previously suffered from discrimination.

The practice involves favouring minorities during the admissions process in order to champion diversity and has long been seen as controversial in America.

Civil rights groups see the Trump administration’s decision to axe Obama-era policies as linked to a broader effort to scrap affirmative action which has been upheld repeatedly by the Supreme Court.

However, the court’s support for the policies could erode when Justice Anthony Kennedy, a pivotal swing vote on the Supreme Court, retires.

Mr Kennedy has cast decisive votes on the issue, penning numerous rulings supporting race-based college admissions policies.

His departure grants Mr Trump the opportunity to radically shift the balance of America’s highest court to the right.

During his tenure on the court, Mr Kennedy served as a critical swing vote amid the court’s split of four liberal and four conservative judges.