Three of WashU’s major affinity groups published an opinion piece announcing, among other things, the creation of multiple student intern positions after years of negotiating with administration. These interns will work with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to help increase diversity in enrollment.

The statement was authored by the Association of Black Students (ABS), the Asian Multicultural Council (AMC), and the Association for Latin American Students (ALAS). 

The groups drafted the statement to express their disappointment with the University regarding the lack of diversity in the Class of 2028.

After the Supreme Court overturned Affirmative Action, WashU saw a 4 percentage point drop in the number of incoming Black students, from 12% in the Class of 2027 to 8% in the Class of 2028. The percentage of Asian, white, and Hispanic students remained relatively stable, while the percentage of students who declined to share their race increased from 1% to 5%. 

Last year, in response to the ruling, Chancellor Andrew Martin released a statement affirming the University’s commitment to diversity. 

“We will make necessary adjustments to ensure that we are following the law while maintaining student-body diversity as a foundational priority,” Martin wrote.

Prior to the announcement of the new initiative, senior Paul Scott, Political Chair for ABS, expressed the need for the University to do more to admit more diverse classes.

 “[While] the University, in some ways, has done much more than it has done in the past to make Black students feel welcome, we can always do more,” Scott said.

In response to the ruling, WashU hired additional admissions officers to do recruitment and outreach at underserved rural high schools, and a staff member focused on admissions/financial aid in the St. Louis region. Admissions also added an optional essay question allowing applicants to talk about their identity. 

Dacoda Scarlett, Associate Director for Rural Recruitment, explained the increased importance of rural recruitment after the abolishment of Affirmative Action, and how rural communities should not be stereotyped.   

“Rural recruitment is a very new method that a lot of universities are using to continue to recruit and enroll diverse students [after the ruling],” Scarlett said. “Rural communities are not monoliths. Throughout the country, there are dynamic and thriving communities of color that are in rural communities.” 

Junior Subratha Araselvan, Co-President of AMC, felt that these measures were not enough. 

“WashU, first and foremost, should focus on making their campus a safer place, a more hospitable place for students of color,” Araselvan said. “And then focusing on recruiting students of color, or Pell-eligible students of color. So I don’t think just adding a question on the application is enough.”

AMC, ALAS, and ABS have negotiated extensively with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions about student input and the subsequent creation of intern positions, which they recently came to an agreement with the Office about. 

“The Office of Undergraduate Admissions will hire several student interns to propose and support improved strategies to grow a historically marginalized student population,” the groups wrote. “We are eager for this intern model to implement meaningful initiatives such as launching and expanding recruitment and yield initiatives.” 

According to Ronné Turner, Vice Provost of Admissions & Financial Aid, working with students has been a helpful way to better understand how to improve diversity on campus. 

“Working with the [Center for Diversity & Inclusion] Student Advisory Group enables us to meet with representatives from these groups and to engage in conversation where we can hear about the total student experience,” Turner wrote. 

This is not the first time ABS and Admissions have collaborated. Turner explained some past initiatives aimed at increasing diversity. 

“Last year, we hosted a collaborative event with ABS for selected high schools,” Turner wrote, noting that WashU plans to repeat the event this year. 

Though the lawsuit that ended Affirmative Action was brought on the behalf of Asian students, junior Sonal Churiwal — Co-President of AMC — expressed strong support for affirmative action, and felt Asian students were being misrepresented.

“This is very emblematic of a long racial history in the United States, where white communities seek to pit Asian Americans against Black Americans, and [at] AMC, we flat-out reject the use of our identity as a wedge,” Churiwal said.  

The opinion submission also called for WashU to collect more specific data on the identities of students after their enrollment that goes beyond the current racial categories. It outlined one reason why the student groups believe this is a necessary measure.

“Vietnamese, Hmong, and Bhutanese Americans are less likely to attain a college degree, whereas Chinese and Indian Americans are more likely,” the groups wrote. “We suspect the decrease in students of backgrounds with lower attainment rates was offset by an increase in students with higher attainment rates.”

The opinion submission expressed hope that when WashU transitions from WebSTAC to Workday in February of 2025, it will allow for more detailed data collection.

“We’re in conversation with people launching the Student Sunrise project, and we were told that it would allow for more data collection,” junior Natalia León-Díaz, Social Justice Lead of ALAS, said.

With regards to data disaggregation, Turner acknowledged that more students are reporting multiple identities to the University than in past years.

 “We’re going to take this year to further examine our data to find the best way to report, to ensure we’re being inclusive,” Turner wrote. 

Multiple representatives from AMC, ABS, and ALAS — including Araselvan — felt that race played a factor in their own college application process.

“I talked about my identities as a South Asian woman in my application. That was basically the entirety of my Common App essay,” Araselvan said.

Araselvan was admitted when Affirmative Action was still in place. Today, though race itself is prohibited from playing a direct role in admissions, colleges can still take how race may have affected an applicant’s life into consideration, as long as the applicant writes about it in their essay. 

Scott felt that it would have been impossible for race not to play a major role in his application, given his family ties to East St. Louis.

“When I got into WashU, I remember talking to my uncle, and he was worried because he didn’t think WashU would be a place that fostered growth, a place that was accepting of people who looked like us, because it wasn’t, when he was my age,” Scott said.  

At the end of the opinion submission, the groups reaffirmed their mission to support students of color at WashU.

“Racial and ethnic equity cannot stop at admissions. We believe it is imperative to focus on every dimension of student experience, from admissions to graduation,” they wrote. 

Scott said that more work needs to be done, especially after the end of race-conscious admissions.

“When my kids are my age, I want them to see a completely different WashU. I want it to be better. And I want it to start with us. I mean, we can’t just talk about it. We have to be a part of that advocacy.”

Editors Note: This article was updated on Nov. 18th to better characterize how long students have been engaging with administration on this topic.