Post-SCOTUS Staff Training Best Practices and Logistics
Common Actions and Practices
Institutions were already doing these things, but they have now increased their efforts in the wake of the ruling.
1. Continuous training on application review and evaluation
Continuous training is essential for effectively reviewing and evaluating applications:
- Primary Training: Typically takes place in the fall prior to application reviews. A large flagship public institution noted that they begin training their new admission staff and interns in early summer so they’re already familiar with the information when full staff training starts in fall.
- Regular Check-Ins: Establish opportunities throughout the application review season to allow staff to answer questions, identify trends they may be seeing, and ensure everyone is on the same page.
- Comprehensive Training Methods: Incorporate homework including mock application review, readings, group work, and a final assessment to ensure thorough understanding.
2. Determine who gets to view applicants’ race and when
There are mixed strategies on whether staff see applicants’ race on the application:
- State Bans Pre-2023 Ruling: Some Collaborative sponsor institutions in states with previous bans on race-conscious admission chose to suppress applicants’ race on the application.
- Post-2023 Ruling: Following the 2023 ruling, other Collaborative institutions have also decided not to allow staff and readers to see applicants’ race during the review process.
- Data Collection: While the ruling did not specifically address data collection or require institutions to suppress or remove race from applications, the U.S. Department of Education Post-SFFA advised that suppression of an applicant’s race from view of file reviewers and admissions staff involved in selection was warranted.
3. Be prepared for questions
Questions from staff and their understanding of the ruling may vary based on experience level:
- Common Concerns: Many institutions noticed that the most common questions from staff centered around correctly following the law while evaluating applications.
- Experience Level Differences: Some institutions indicated they see a difference in the level of understanding of the ruling from their entry-level and senior staff. Training approaches should take these differences into consideration.
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Collaborative Sponsor Examples
A selective private institution
This institution typically conducts training in October before reading files in November. Trainings are usually half days with check-in points throughout the year.
- The institution has a campus-based team, regional staff throughout the country and outside readers. The campus-based team and regional staff are expected to participate in on-campus training. While virtual training was productive, the institution felt it was better for staff—especially new staff members— to have hard conversations in person.
- Zoom is used to train external readers, but the line of communication is always open.
- The admissions office participates in the institution’s required (even for students) university-wide bias training.
A public flagship institution
This institution conducts its main training in October with permanent staff and seasonal readers, enhanced by periodic touch points. Most training is virtual, with some in-person sessions.
During the 2023–2024 cycle, the school’s general counsel was invited to attend in-person training and implicit bias training.
The most sensitive topics are discussed in person to ensure staff feel comfortable processing the content.
Seasonal readers are required to attend the in-person sessions.
The institution has roughly 25 external readers.
- Live virtual training is conducted via Microsoft Teams and the sessions, lasting typically 30 – 60 minutes, are recorded and shared with the staff.
A selective private institution
This institution conducts their file training at the end of October into early November, holding 4–5 half day sessions.
They conduct pre-season training for new admission officers in August before they hit the road.
Legal counsel provides aggregate data on race to staff.
All training is held in person but it is recorded. Part-time reader training is exclusively virtual.
The team reads in pairs (a professional staff member with another professional or part-time reader) who read activities lists and additional contextual information.
The professional staff conducts academic evaluations, and a committee-based evaluation model is used.