USC President Worries Supreme Court Will End Race-Based College Admissions

Carol Folt, president of the University of Southern California, said she is “very worried” about the potential impacts should the US Supreme Court overturn the use of race as a factor in college admissions.

(Bloomberg) — Carol Folt, president of the University of Southern California, said she is “very worried” about the potential impacts should the US Supreme Court overturn the use of race as a factor in college admissions.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television Thursday in Los Angeles, Folt said she’s confident the university would keep promoting racial diversity on campus no matter what the Supreme Court decides.

“But I’m also very worried in states where people are limiting it,” she said. “I don’t think it will affect us.”

The court is looking at two cases — one centered on Harvard University and another on the University of North Carolina — that question the legality of affirmative action, which helps underrepresented groups access higher education.

The court’s conservative majority suggested in an October hearing that it saw affirmative action, which the court first upheld in 1978, as having run its course. 

–With assistance from Romaine Bostick.

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