Chapter 1: Introduction

The current condition of higher education in the United States is marked by consistent legal challenges to affirmative action and race-conscious policies affecting high-stakes college admissions, employment, and other core functions. At the time of this writing, “strict scrutiny,” the most stringent standard of judicial review—applies to the use of race/ethnicity in college admission decisions, reflecting increasingly declining support for the idea that educational diversity is a compelling state interest (Chang, 2001). For many years prior, educators enjoyed near-wholesale adoption of the belief that racial/ethnic diversity added value to the educational experience for all people. It was once well accepted that diversity provided the conditions necessary for building academic environments opulent with opportunities for fostering cognitive growth, identity exploration, and social psychological development (Hurtado et al., 2015; Stulberg & Weinberg, 2011). Reams of social science research converged on several major points about the educational benefits of diversity—for example, that diversity introduced the relational discontinuities and cognitive dissonance necessary for stimulating cognitive development and interpersonal communication (Bowman & Denson, 2012; Strayhorn, 2010a).