Enrollment data for the first round of college students affected by the outlawing of affirmative action has been slowly disseminating over the past few weeks. As academia reckons with the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision, the spotlight is exceptionally bright on elite schools like Harvard University. The college was at the center of the lawsuit that led to the landmark decision, which accused Harvard of discriminating against Asian American applicants while favoring other minority groups. The slowly emerging data should illuminate whether the decision has caused a shift in campus diversity.

Schools share data on the class of 2028

Harvard College was the latest school to release data on the racial and ethnic makeup of the class of 2028, the first class impacted by the Supreme Court “striking down the ability of colleges and universities to consider race and ethnicity as one factor among many in the admissions process,” said The Harvard Gazette. Excluding students who chose not to identify their race, 14% identified as African American or Black, a decrease from 18% in the class of 2027. The number of Hispanic students went up to 16% from 14%. Asian American students comprised 37% of the class, and less than 1% identified as Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders, reflecting no change in either group. The school did not report the share of white students in the class, which was “consistent with past practice,” the Times said. Still, it is “hard to make inferences,” said The New York Times, since the share of students not disclosing their race or ethnicity doubled to 8% since last year.