Even before the Trump administration went to war against DEI and attempts to address historical discrimination, diversity efforts in the US were controversial. A pivotal moment came in 2023, when the Supreme Court ruled that race-based affirmative action programs violated the Constitution. The decision partly rested on universities’ inability to clearly measure the benefits of diverse student bodies and the lack of defined standards to determine when equity had been achieved and such programs should end.
A new paper highlights the uncertainty. “Learning theory argues that racial diversity promotes student learning, which should increase salaries,” its authors write. “However, well-documented racial wage discrimination indicates that higher racial diversity should decrease salaries.”
But the authors—Debanjan Mitra, Peter Golder, and Mariya Topchy—have developed a metric suggesting that graduates benefit financially if they graduate with a diverse peer group. The researchers argue that this evidence should be sufficient to prompt courts to reconsider earlier rulings.
