News and Events

As an educational community of artists whose work is grounded in openness, experimentation, critical engagement, and creative freedom, we are deeply disappointed in the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling outlawing the consideration of race as a factor in college admissions. With this decision, the court not only undermines the ability of academic institutions to fulfill our distinct missions, it signals a willful disregard of systemic inequities that have infused higher education in this country since the founding of its first university and have yet to be overcome.

While CalArts does not directly consider an applicant’s race as a “check-mark” part of our admission process, we are fiercely committed to building a community that reflects and advances the full diversity of our society, striving to make room at the center for those who have historically been pushed to the margins. We stand with our colleagues at Harvard, the University of North Carolina, and others throughout higher education as we endeavor to do this hard work together. This ruling, which goes against decades of legal precedent, complicates those efforts significantly, but it will not stop them. 

It is and always has been incumbent upon artists to speak truth to power, to use our practices to further the values that we share. At CalArts, our values are deeply rooted in equity, agency, and social justice. We therefore see this moment as a call to double down on our commitments to inclusion, diversity, equity, and access, and to raise our voices louder in support of work that moves us toward a more just and equitable society for all of its members.  

In solidarity,

Resources

The following resources may be helpful to those who would like to dig deeper into the Supreme Court’s decision and its potential impact, as well as learning more about CalArts’ commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (IDEA). 

• CalArts Mission and Values
• CalArts IDEA Cooperative
• Supreme Court Opinion
• Justices Jackson’s and Sotomayor’s dissents
• American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) statement
• National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) resources 
• Harvard University: Harvard Admissions Lawsuit
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Admissions Case page