U. Maryland Laments the End of Racial Discrimination

U. Maryland Laments the End of Racial Discrimination

The left doesn’t want racial discrimination to end because it’s too useful for them.

George R. LaNoue writes at Minding the Campus:

Maryland Regrets the End of Racial Discrimination

The higher education community awaited a Supreme Court decision regarding campus admissions with great anxiety. After the Court issued Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College (SFFA) banning such racial discrimination, many campuses deplored it and sought ways to avoid its effect.

An official letter to the “Dear Terrapin Community” at the University of Maryland—College Park (UMD) illustrates this point. In its three pages, the letter does not cite any Constitutional or statutory language or discuss any argument the Court made. Instead, Maryland President Darryll J. Pines delivered this lament:

Needless to say, the decision is disappointing. Race has never been a determining factor here at the University of Maryland. Instead, it was one of 26 unique factors that we have considered in undergraduate admissions. It has been said that it is impossible to dismantle centuries of racism without acknowledging and considering race in the decisions we make today. However, we remain optimistic that our campus will continue to attract and retain a diverse student body… There is no getting around the fact that the role of race is changing in college admission, but the University of Maryland will move forward with a bolstered commitment and a singular voice.

There are several remarkable aspects in this campus statement.

First, it was issued on June 29, 2023, the day of the decision, suggesting that it had been prepared before anyone had read the Court’s actual analysis of precedents and its holdings.

Second, in addition to the signature of the President and the Senior Vice President and Provost, the letter was co-signed by ten other campus Vice Presidents and fifteen Deans. How many of them had read the decision before attaching their signatures? Did these administrators object to the requirements of the plain text of the Fourteenth Amendment that “no state should deny to any person equal protection of the laws” or to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which forbids “excluding any person on the ground of race, color or national origin of participation in or denied the benefit of, or be subjected to discrimination in any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance?” UMD receives millions of dollars of federal funds every year.

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