Vice Dean Keith Bybee Speaks About the Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action Case in the Daily Orange 

Vice Dean Keith Bybee

Syracuse University plans to continue to pursue diversity and equitable admissions through recruitment in the case the Supreme Court bans affirmative action in college admissions, an SU spokesperson told The Daily Orange in a written statement. The Court heard arguments in early November for two cases against Harvard College and the University of North Carolina, questioning the use of affirmative action and race consideration in admissions processes.

Vice Dean Keith Bybee said the implications of the court’s decisions, which will likely come in June 2023, will differ based on the court’s arguments. He said the court could decide to interpret the Equal Protection Clause and Title VI in the same way, or interpret and apply them differently. 

“You can think of this like a table with rows and columns. It depends what box we land in,” Bybee said. “How do we understand the language in this statute? Are we going to interpret it in such a way that allows for affirmative action or extremely restricted circumstances, or are we interpreting in some way that it’s a across the board prohibition on the use of race and ethnicity?”