Students for Fair Admissions said it is “prepared to enforce” SFFA v. Harvard College against Duke “through litigation” two weeks after the Class of 2028’s demographic breakdown revealed a six-percentage-point decrease in the proportion of Asian students from the Class of 2027.
SFFA, the group that sued Harvard College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for practicing race-based affirmative action, sent the Tuesday notice to Kim Taylor, vice president and general counsel of Duke University. The letter characterized the decrease in Asian students from those enrolled in Duke’s Class of 2027 to those in the Class of 2028 — 35% to 29% — as “not possible” through the race-blind admissions process delineated in the June 2023 Supreme Court ruling.
“You told the Supreme Court that, without explicit racial preferences, it would be impossible to ‘obtain the student body’ that you obtained in the past,” wrote SFFA President Edward Blum. “… Based on SFFA’s extensive experience, your racial numbers are not possible under true race neutrality.”
“Duke University is committed to compliance with the law,” wrote Frank Tramble, vice president for communications, marketing and public affairs, in a Wednesday email to The Chronicle. “We value every student and are excited to welcome another outstanding class.”
Blum demanded in the letter that Duke explain the "discrepancy, including any new, substantial race-neutral alternatives" that it has adopted since the decision. If the University does not provide that information, "SFFA will conclude that [Duke] is circumventing the Supreme Court's decision."
Compared to 5% of students enrolled in Duke’s Class of 2027, 11% of those enrolled in the Class of 2028 declined to share their race in the most recent application cycle.
The reason behind the six-percentage-point increase in enrolled students who declined to share their race is unclear. Further, the proportion of Asian students within the unspecified 11% — and whether that proportion is higher than in past years — is unknown.
University administration did not respond to The Chronicle’s request for the demographic breakdown of students admitted to the Class of 2028 in time for publication.
Blum added that according to the June 2023 ruling, colleges cannot use “application essays or other means” to give racial preference to applicants.
The syllabus of the ruling states that “nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected [their] life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university.”
In the letter, Blum also stated that “socioeconomic preferences would not cause a decrease in Asian American enrollment” and alleged that the University “refused to eliminate legacy preferences.”
Duke claims to practice a need-blind admissions process.
Blum further alleged that the University “explicitly gave racial preferences to African Americans and Hispanics” in the Class of 2027. During the 2022-23 admissions cycle, universities were permitted to practice race-based admissions.
The Class of 2028’s Black student population remained at 13%, consistent with the Class of 2027, and the Hispanic/Latinx population rose to 14% from 13%. The white student population decreased from 53% to 52%, while the Native American/American Indian/Native Alaskan/Native Hawaiian population remained at “just more than 1%” of the student population.
Princeton University and Yale University also received a letter from Blum and SFFA. The universities’ Asian student enrollment populations declined from 26% and 30% in the Class of 2027 to 23.8% and 24% in the Class of 2028, respectively.
The letter comes after Duke agreed in January to pay $24 million to settle a class action case alleging that it — along with 17 other elite institutions — illegally practiced need-aware admissions.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
Abby Spiller is a Trinity junior and editor-in-chief of The Chronicle's 120th volume.