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Black student enrollment falls at UNC-Chapel Hill after end of race-based affirmative action

UNC-Chapel Hill's Old Well, taken on Sept. 13, 2023.
Liz Schlemmer
/
WUNC
File image of UNC-Chapel Hill's Old Well, taken on Sept. 13, 2023. Black student enrollment dropped significantly at UNC-Chapel Hill following last year's U.S. Supreme Court decision to end race-based affirmative action policies.

Black student enrollment dropped significantly at UNC-Chapel Hill following last year's U.S. Supreme Court decision to end race-based affirmative action policies.

This fall's incoming first-years and transfers are the first class to be selected since that ruling.

Newly released numbers show 7.8% of the new class is Black. That's down from 10.5% last fall.

In a virtual press conference, UNC's vice provost for enrollment Rachelle Feldman said one year of data is not enough to determine any trends.

"We're, of course, always looking at how we do our admissions. It's very important to us to consider the student, their context in every aspect of that, but we haven't made any concrete plans I can share to radically change anything," Feldman said.

Feldman added the university is committed to making sure students feel encouraged to apply and would continue to use outreach staff to recruit students from diverse backgrounds.

The shares of Hispanic or Latino and American Indian students also dropped slightly from 10.8% to 10.1% and 1.6% to 1.1% respectively.

The shares of white and Asian students were slightly up from 63.7% to 63.8% and 24.8% to 25.8% respectively.

Will Michaels is WUNC's Weekend Host and Reporter.