September 18, 2025
Information exhibits enrollment for Black and Latino college students has decreased considerably.
For the final 50 years, Harvard College’s Undergraduate Minority Recruitment Program has inspired minority highschool college students to use. However because the Trump administration pressures larger schooling establishments to get rid of race in admissions and scholarships, Harvard quietly ended its minority recruitment program.
Based on The Harvard Crimson, Harvard will join potential candidates with present undergraduates beneath a brand new program referred to as Harvard Recruitment Ambassadors. Earlier than the change, the UMRP guided minority center and highschool college students by the college’s software course of.
This system employed a group of undergraduate coordinators who answered college students’ questions in regards to the admissions course of and life as a scholar. Undergraduate coordinators would reportedly journey to excessive faculties of their hometowns to information purposes. They’d additionally reply questions and provides the quantity to a devoted cellphone line for potential recruits.
With its new unified program, Harvard will nonetheless enable potential candidates to contact present undergraduates with questions. Nonetheless, there shall be no in-person outreach to excessive faculties or particular scholar teams.
Harvard Ends Minority Recruitment Program As Trump Administration Cracks Down on Race Admissions
Harvard made the change quietly with out public announcement, The Harvard Crimson reported. The modifications come practically two years after the Supreme Court docket dominated in opposition to Harvard’s controversial admissions course of, which has been criticized for years. Whereas the Supreme Court docket dominated in opposition to race-based admissions at universities, the excessive courtroom didn’t get rid of recruitment packages so long as they weren’t solely primarily based on race.
For the reason that Supreme Court docket’s resolution banning affirmative motion in faculty admissions, enrollment for Black and Latino college students has decreased considerably. Based on the Rennie Middle Training Analysis & Coverage, Black scholar enrollment at Harvard dropped from 18% within the fall of 2023 to 14% within the fall of 2024. The College of North Carolina noticed a lower in Black scholar enrollment from 10.5% to 7.8% inside the similar timeframe. Black and Hispanic scholar enrollment fell to five%, in comparison with 15% the earlier yr on the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how.
In its continued effort to focus on college students from underrepresented backgrounds, the Trump administration not too long ago introduced that it’ll finish $350 million in discretionary funding for schools that serve giant populations of minority-serving establishments.
RELATED CONTENT: Division of Training Approves Almost 50% Improve In HBCU Funding
