ACC president: End of affirmative action won’t affect college
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ALPENA -- The U.S. Supreme Court's strikedown of race-based admissions in higher education won't affect Alpena Community College, which enrolls all comers, the college president said Friday.
Colleges across the country will be forced to stop considering race in admissions under a Thursday ruling by the Supreme Court that ended affirmative action policies dating back decades.
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Schools that have relied on race-conscious admissions policies to build diversity will have to rethink how they admit students.
At ACC, however, "we admit everyone who applies," ACC President Don MacMaster said in an email to The News on Friday.
"In the case of high-demand occupational programs such as Utility Tech and Nursing, enrollees may not gain immediate admission to their program of choice because the program is full or pre-requisites need to be met, but otherwise we take enrollees where they are academically and do our best to get them on a path to successfully achieving their educational and career goals," MacMaster said. "I don't see the Supreme Court's decision on affirmative action affecting enrollment at ACC due to this open access policy."
ACC's student body is more diverse than Northeast Michigan's population as a whole, data shows.
In fall 2021, about 7% of ACC's students were people of color, according to the most recent data from the Michigan Department of Education. About 4% of Northeast Michiganders were people of color that year, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
In fact, ACC diversity outpaces Northeast Michigan for almost every group of people. Native Americans made up 3% of ACC enrollment and Asian and Black students made up about 2% each, for example, while those groups each made up less than 1% of Northeast Michigan's population, the data shows.
One area ACC lags is in people who consider themselves a mix of two or more races. Such individuals make up nearly 3% of Northeast Michigan's population, but none of ACC's enrollment.
Race was unknown for about 2% of ACC's enrollment.
MacMaster said the ACC Board of Trustees has set goals for the college to offer "a welcoming, safe, and adaptable culture that inspires diversity" and to "motivate continuous exploration of diverse opportunities and knowledge acquisition through a flexible learning environment."
In addition, he said ACC has increased diversity because the college has attracted more international students recently, its athletics programs attract students from beyond the region, and its dual enrollment and Early College programs extend into areas with slightly more diversity than Northeast Michigan.
"Bottom line, we value diversity and believe it's an important piece of a vibrant community college and a welcoming community," MacMaster said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.