Local residents react to Affirmative Action ruling: "I am very much concerned"
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A sweeping ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court effectively ended Affirmative Action in college admissions Thursday.
The nation's highest court says colleges and universities can no longer take race into consideration.
The decision is reverberating across the country.
Outside the court, students and civil rights leaders gathered to protest.
But activists who argued Affirmative Action policies discriminated against other applicants hailed the ruling.
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"I wasn't entirely shocked because of the makeup of the court," Jemille Duncan said.
Duncan is a sophomore at Swarthmore College. He grew up in Philadelphia and has been involved in city and state government since the age of 13.
"I am very much concerned about the ramifications down the line. One for minorities and the college application process because this for generations has benefited minorities, especially Black people," Duncan said.
And when it comes to admissions and creating student populations, that's where Rakin Hall comes in. He's the vice president of Enrollment and Management at Arcadia University.
"The tricky part of my job is I have to quantify, qualify and diversify a class every single year," Hall said.
Hall says they also look at the student as a whole. Everything from grades, scores, letters of recommendations and essays
"Our greatest crime is that we are trying to be equitable and fair and we are not trying to close anyone out of the process, we're not trying to marginalize populations," Hall said.
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Cara McClellan, an associate professor at Penn Law School, says this decision is a barrier.
"When our institutions of higher education become exclusionary spaces that really undermines the legitimacy of our promise of the American dream," McClellan said.
"Today, I think we've achieved equal justice under law," Vic Benson, the vice president of Young America's Foundation, a Conservative group based out of Virginia, said.
"I don't want anyone thinking my success wasn't earned, but was given to me by some benefactor who claims to know more about what's better for me than I know myself," he added.