Race Was Once Factored into College Admissions. Now, It’s Factored Out.

When the Supreme Court overturned race-conscious college admissions last June, Adrienne Oddi and other administrators at Queens University paused their Board of Trustees meeting to acknowledge that their world was entering a new era. Though Queens did not factor race into admissions decisions like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard University — the schools at the center of the ruling upending 40 years of precedent — officials at the Charlotte campus knew they would have to act: Even acknowledging a student’s race in admissions discussions could now pose a degree of legal peril.