Senator J.D. Vance cautions colleges to comply with affirmative action ruling

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance on Thursday urged Ivy League universities and two Ohio colleges to preserve admissions records in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn affirmative action.

In a letter to 10 university presidents, the Republican senator demanded they preserve admissions documents to assure compliance with the court’s June 29 ruling that deemed colleges’ and universities’ decades-long use of race in admissions processes – no matter how narrowly tailored – unconstitutional.

After the court issued its opinion, Vance said he took issue with the way some universities – including Oberlin and Kenyon colleges in Ohio – expressed “open hostility” to the fall of affirmative action and hinted at potential avenues to circumvent it.

“A number of these university presidents issued statements that indicated plans to flagrantly defy the Supreme Court’s ruling and continue to focus on the race of students applying for admission to their schools,” Vance’s office said in a press release.

Oberlin College and Conservatory President Carmen Ambar, for instance, said in a letter that the court’s ruling left her “deeply saddened and concerned for the future of higher education” but strengthened her commitment to promoting diversity at the school.

In a similar statement, Kenyon College’s Acting President Jeff Bowman called the court’s decision “deeply disappointing” and harmful to colleges’ and universities’ abilities to carry out their educational missions.

“It also dramatically understates the role race has historically played and continues to play in determining access to resources of all kinds,” Bowman wrote. “As Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson writes in the dissenting opinion: ‘deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.’”

But Vance called their reactions to the court’s ruling “disconcerting” and “potentially unlawful,” cautioning them against using other means, like essays, to incorporate race into admissions decisions. Doing so, he said, could prompt a federal investigation.

“The United States Senate is prepared to use its full investigative powers to uncover circumvention, covert or otherwise, of the Supreme Court’s ruling,” Vance wrote.

In case of future congressional investigations, Vance asked the university presidents to retain digital correspondence between admissions officers, demographic or other data compiled during future admissions cycles, and other relevant records. 

By July 21, he requested the presidents answer his questions about how their respective university plans to comply with the Supreme Court’s decision and retain admissions documents.

A spokesperson for Oberlin College said in a statement that the university continues to review the court’s ruling to fully understand its implications and will comply with the law.

“We believe we can do this and still be, as President Ambar wrote in her letter to the Oberlin community, ‘a welcoming place where diversity is celebrated, where all voices are valued, and where every student can thrive,’” the spokesperson said.

Kenyon College did not respond to a request for comment.