HAMPTON, Va. — The Supreme Court on Thursday set new limits on affirmative action programs.
The court ruled colleges and universities must stop considering race in admissions.
"I wasn’t surprised, but now I’m saying, ‘What’s next?’" said Hampton NAACP President Gaylene Kanoyton.
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She calls the move an attack on education.
"It’s unconstitutional to have affirmative action, but yet, you can write about your struggles and then we can decide," Kanoyton said.
She said she worries this decision and decisions like it will spill into the workforce.
"We are not in a post-racism era. We’re not. So, we still need the safety nets," Kanoyton said.
The move also has some wondering what this means for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Hampton University President Darrell Williams said it’s too early to tell.
"This isn’t the first time that major decisions at the national level have had an impact on the potential viability of HBCUs," he said.
There is also speculation this could mean increased enrollment at HBCUs, something Williams says they are already seeing.
"Our freshman class this incoming year will be 39% larger than it was for the freshman class last year," he said.
He said no matter what happens, this doesn’t change their overall mission.
"Our HBCUs are just as critical today as they ever have been, if not more," he said. "We have historically, and we will always welcome any student who wants to walk through Hampton's doors."
When the court made its ruling, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a statement, “We are closer than ever before to ensuring that an individual's future opportunities are unlocked based on the trajectory of their potential, their aspirations, and the quality of their capabilities as opposed to simply on their race."
U.S. Representative Bobby Scott called the decision "a significant setback in our effort to eliminate disparities in access to higher education."
Leaders at the University of Virginia said they will always follow the law. However, they will "do everything within our legal authority to recruit and admit a class of students who are diverse across every possible dimension."
UVA President Jim Ryan and Provost Ian Baucom continued by saying, "Our commitment to diversity, in short, is not diminished, even if our ability to pursue that goal is constrained. Diversity, in all its forms, is critical to the educational experience, because students learn not just from their professors but from each other. Our goal is to prepare students to lead in a complex and dynamic world, and one of the ways we achieve that goal is to offer them as many opportunities as possible to exchange ideas and perspectives with people with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives."