Senator Schmitt, Missouri Colleagues Send Letter Urging University of Missouri to Disregard Democrats’ Request to Skirt the Law on Race-Based Admissions

WASHINGTON – Today, Senator Eric Schmitt, alongside Missouri Reps. Eric Burlison (MO-07) and Mark Alford (MO-04), sent a letter urging the University of Missouri to disregard recent calls by Missouri Democratic representatives for the university to skirt the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action in the college admissions process.

“The Supreme Court ruled in June that policies requiring consideration of an applicant’s race in the admissions process, otherwise known as affirmative action, is unconstitutional. However, the lawmakers argue the Supreme Court’s decision was rushed, and that the University system should resume considering applicants’ races when considering them for admission,” the letter reads. “To revert back to putting an applicant’s race in the evaluated criteria for the admissions process would not just go against the Supreme Court’s decision, but it would tell potential students that what they look like is just as important as how prepared they are to go to college. A student’s admission to college should be based solely on their academic and extracurricular merit, not physical attributes. There is no logical reasoning for putting a student’s race on the same pedestal as their academic acuity, and to do so will only degrade the credibility of the university.”

“We write to you today to express serious concern with the representatives’ attempt to convince the University of Missouri System to ignore the Supreme Court ruling,” the letter continues. “As we understand, since the ruling was delivered in June, the University has rightly followed the law regarding the consideration of race in its admissions process. We contend their letter should be entirely disregarded as it only serves as a distraction from the great education the University of Missouri System offers.”

BACKGROUND:

• In June, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Students For Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard and SFFA v. University of North Carolina that policies requiring consideration of an applicant’s race in the admissions process, otherwise known as affirmative action, is unconstitutional.
• In August, the Biden Administration’s Department of Education offered guidance on how to skirt the Supreme Court’s decision that ruled affirmative action unconstitutional and encouraged universities to continue considering race in admissions.
  • In a “Dear Colleague Letter” and “Frequently Asked Questions” document released August 14, officials suggested substituting words such as “underserved” and “disadvantaged” for “race.”
  • This was a blatant attempt by the Biden Administration to completely disregard the rule of law regarding university admissions criteria, and the Democratic representatives’ letter is urging the University of Missouri to do the same.
  • This is a brazen attempt to violate the precedent set by the Supreme Court in June and would unequivocally be unconstitutional.