African American

The Supreme Court is currently preparing a decision on Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, a lawsuit that alleges the Ivy League university‘s race-conscious admissions process discriminates against Asian applicants.

After the court heard the case in October, advocates fear the conservative majority might mean the end of affirmative action. Students of color at both Harvard and the University of North Carolina, also being sued by Students for Fair Admissions, have spent months protesting and speaking out in favor of race-conscious admissions.

Losing that battle could put lower-income Asian American and Pacific Islander applicants at a disadvantage, Park said, as well as stunting students’ diverse educational experience.

“We know from research that low-income Asian American students actually do receive a boost under these policies,” she said. “They pay attention to not just race, but also ethnicity, to subgroups that have been historically underserved in education, like Southeast Asian Americans and the Pacific Islander community.”