Amherst College, one of the nation's most elite liberal arts schools, has been one of the most diverse historically.
In 2023, federal data revealed that 11% of student organizations, which are their overall black registrations, far outweigh many other similar institutions.
So it was particularly jarring for the Amherst community last fall. Data from the freshman class revealed that only 3% of the members are black.
Arts major Quincy Smith joined one of the most diverse classes in Amherst history in 2022, and he feels that black student gatherings are different now.
In Amherst, students and administrators, a university of roughly 1,900 undergraduate universities in central Massachusetts, are now unsettling as the idea of ​​diversity, one of the school's core values, is increasingly attacking attacks by Washington's conservatives.
All over the country, highly selective universities and their students were already hoping to consider demographic changes sparked by the landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2023, which banned the use of racial preferences in university admissions. According to an analysis by The New York Times, some schools only saw slight changes to their registered makeup.
However, in others, including Amherst, Black and Hispanic registrations, there was a sharp decline last fall – first class affected by the new ruling – Amherst experienced one of the steepest drops. Hispanic enrollment in Amherst's freshman class fell to 8% last fall, compared to 12% the previous year.
The Trump administration is trying to use its Supreme Court case to increase pressure on universities. It is promised to punish schools that believe they may be avoiding decisions. The move has increased tensions as it not only attempts to avoid legal challenges at schools like Amherst, but also encourages faculty, students and alumni to fight back against the school.
Conservatives argue that diversity efforts aimed at boosting blacks, Hispanics and other groups have led to discrimination against Asian and White students. “To eliminate racism means to eliminate it all,” the Supreme Court said in its ruling.
Despite the decision, Amherst President Michael A. Elliott said the school's 200-year-old mission, which emphasizes educating students from all backgrounds, has not changed.
“My goal is to carry out our mission and do so in a way that is compliant with the law,” Dr. Elliott said in a telephone interview.
Amherst was one of the first highly selective universities to eliminate heritage preferences that tended to support white students. He was also the lead author of a Supreme Court case summary that argued “the educational interests of diverse student bodies and the social interests of educating diverse future leaders.”
Simply put, Amherst argued that eliminating race-conscious enrollment would result in “repeated impacts,” predicting that he could lose about half of the enrollment of Native American, Black and Hispanic students.
As that prediction was largely realized, many in Amherst are concerned that black and Hispanic students on campus will become less attractive to those groups and will encourage a further cycle of decline.
Marllury Vizcaino, a freshman from Washington Heights in Manhattan, said he was the only black student at a first-year seminar he needed last fall and one of two black students in his chemistry class.
“I wasn't welcomed because I really didn't meet any students who looked like me,” Viscaino said.
Bryce Dawkins, a senior in Oakland, California, majored in English and black studies and said diversity attracted her to Amherst.
“When I was applying to college, I was looking at Amherst in particular because there are so many black students,” she said.
In a book talk on campus in October, professor and author Anthony Abraham Jack, one of Amherst's prominent black alumni, said he felt a deep sadness over the change.
“I don't know how difficult it was to walk when numbers came out,” said Dr. Jack, a 2007 graduate who taught today at Boston University and grew up in a low-income household in Miami. “The places that changed my life and the places I love are probably more than any other place.”
Concerns about numbers that frequently occur at faculty meetings and alumni gatherings. Charles Drew House, a dormitory for black students named after a pioneering black doctor. The Multicultural Resource Center is a gathering place for students of color.
Students at Amherst, a campus newspaper, described diversity as a “always existing background” when 130 enrollees visited last fall.
Since the demographics of the new student class were revealed, Amherst has been working to reverse the decline in black and Hispanic students while adhering to the law. (Including international students, 9% of the new student class this year was black, but that number fell from 19% last year.)
The university was no longer allowed to ask applicants about race after the Supreme Court decision. So, highly selective schools are looking for first students to attend family colleges, visiting rural communities and expanding financial aid for low-income students.
Amherst added four members to the recruitment team. They traveled across the country to find students who might help the school produce more diverse classes. Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi were on the list. So was the case with the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.
On March 21, Amherst announced that it had offered admission to 1,175 students. 96 comes from rural areas, up from 37 last year.
Amherst said there was no racial disruption among the newly admitted students, but Matthew L. McGan, dean of Amherst's admission and financial aid, said a quarter of students were the first in their families to be the school's record.
Dr. Elliott believes multiple factors are playing in demographic changes last year, and noted that the small size of the school is amplifying changes in percentages.
And he is optimistic about the class that comes in.
“We're really encouraged by what we've seen,” he said.
Applicants must accept by May 1st, and it is difficult to say how many people say “yes.” Many schools, including Ivy League schools, compete for the best and brightest students of racial minority groups.
“The maximum number of students who say 'no' to Amherst ends up in Yale and elsewhere like that in New Haven,” Dr. McGann said in an interview. He acknowledged that the number of black students who offered to enter last year has also declined, adding that the year is not enough to suggest a trend.
Dr. Jack said he believes Amherst is more cautious than many other schools when selecting classes using measures such as high school grades.
“I felt like there was a conversation about trying to prevent people from suing,” said Dr. Jack, a professor of leadership in higher education.
Conservatives have only stepped up school scrutiny in recent weeks. Last month, the Department of Justice announced that it would investigate admission policies at four University of California. And Edward Blum, the activist behind the suit that led to the Supreme Court case, said he is looking at school data for evidence of “fraud.”
Blum said his efforts to end positive actions were inspired by the work of Martin Luther King Jr., arguing that “personal race and ethnicity should not be used to help or harm them in their life's efforts.”
In an interview, Jeffrey Wright, an Amherst alumnus who starred in the 2023 film “American Fiction,” and a satire about the stereotypical races of the publishing industry, characterized Blum's reference to Dr. King as “the most awful cynical thing I've heard in a long time.”
Wright, who was recently on Amherst's campus, spoke at a literary event, and considers Blum's work to be part of a movement to roll back civil rights, reminiscent of the Jim Crow era.
Over the past few months, Amherst leaders have held massive meetings with campus constituencies, trying to reassure them that they are working to prevent repetition.
After attending such a meeting with the Black Student Union, Zane Khiry, a senior from Abenelle, New Jersey, said he was a former officer in the group.
“They chose to play safely with the diversity of praise. They chose to play it safely,” he said.
