BU’s Black first-year student enrollment falls to 3%

Boston University is one of the latest schools to report trends of decreasing diversity in its first-year class following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to overturn affirmative action. The University reported that enrollment of Black students in the Class of 2028, the first class admitted following the decision, declined to 3% from last year’s 9%. 

With this decline, BU joins other New England schools affected by the ruling, including Harvard University, Brown University, Tufts University and Amherst College. 

“This is a really big change, and it’s very hard for a university to adjust to an admissions process that quickly,” BU President Melissa Gilliam said about the ruling during an interview on Sept. 9.

Gilliam, who replaced Interim President Kenneth Freeman on July 1, is BU’s first Black president. She plans to set up a task force to maintain diversity in the student body, according to Gilliam’s statement.

As a result of the June 2023 Supreme Court decision, colleges are now banned from considering race in admissions. The decision was controversial and provoked disapproving statements from BU admissions.  

BU Spokesperson Colin Riley deferred comment to Gilliam’s statement. 

BU Student Body President Akwasi Antwi said he was not surprised by the enrollment decline, and he plans to address it soon. 

“This decision would have affected students like me,” Antwi, who is Black, said. “I think what the University should be judged on is the validity of the steps that it takes to at least mitigate the effect that this problem has.”

Antwi said he plans to advocate for a Black student resource center as well as for BU to hire more Black professors in an effort to encourage more Black students to apply to the University. 

Oluwatofẹ Akinyanmi, a sophomore and co-host of the WTBU radio show “Melanin Matters”, was shocked by the news. 

“I don’t want to lose the resources or the spaces that we created,” Akinyanmi said. “I feel like without people to maintain those spaces, it will be harder to maintain them overall.”

42% of the Class of 2028 are students of color, down from 44% last year, according to data from the University. The population of Asian-American students increased to 21% from last year’s 18%, and Hispanic students decreased to 12% from last year’s 13%. The enrollment of white students stayed at 29%. 

“Getting more Black students to apply through University programs and highlighting that, despite the fact that this decision is out, there are still Black students here,” Antwi said. “If the University doesn’t do that, it’s failed in its mission.”

Co-Campus Editors Kayla Baltazar and Crystal Yormick contributed reporting.