Supreme Court affirmative action ruling has little effect at NC colleges

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - The U.S. Supreme Court decision largely striking down affirmative action appears to have little effect on north country colleges.

As the new college year begins, St. Lawrence University said in a statement that it ‘values, respects and celebrates that Laurentians benefit from living, learning and working in an inclusive community at SLU,’ and no aspect of its admission policy required adjusting as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

The Supreme Court ruled on June 29 that race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were unconstitutional.

Clarkson University said in a statement that the ruling does not diminish Clarkson’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

“We remain steadfast to the intentions of the sisters and niece of Thomas S. Clarkson who founded our great institution of higher education in 1896 to increase access to technological education. Implicit in this is our continued support for access to all who are qualified and seek to enroll,” Clarkson said in its statement.

It is not entirely clear what colleges will be allowed to do going forward, when it comes to deciding who’s in; the cases decided by the Supreme Court yielded six different opinions from the justices.