This week on SA Voices From the Field we interviewed Art Coleman about Race Based Admissions and where we are as a country when it comes to this ever-changing landscape. 

Art Coleman is a Managing Partner and co-founder of EducationCounsel LLC.  He provides policy, strategic, and legal counseling services to national non-profit organizations, postsecondary institutions, school districts and state agencies throughout the country, where he addresses issues associated with:

• student access, diversity, inclusion, expression, and success;
• faculty diversity, inclusion and expression; and
• institutional quality, accountability and accreditation.

Mr. Coleman previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, where, in the 1990s, he led the Department’s development of the Department’s Title VI policy on race-conscious financial aid, as well as OCR’s first comprehensive Title IX sexual harassment policy guidance.      

Mr. Coleman was instrumental in the establishment of the College Board's Access and Diversity Collaborative (ADC) in 2004, which he has helped lead since its inception. He was also a member of a thought leadership panel that helped inform the development of the January 2022 report, Toward a More Equitable Future for Postsecondary Access, published by NACAC and NASFAA.  With a focus on issues of diversity and higher education admissions, he has also authored amicus briefs in: Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) & Gratz v. Bollinger (2003); Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (I and II, 2013 and 2016); and in the 2022 SFFA v. Harvard/UNC cases.  His advocacy work also includes the development of a successful federal amicus strategy and numerous federal appellate briefs on behalf of transgender students throughout the United States.

Mr. Coleman is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education, where he teaches a masters level course on enrollment management law and policy.  In 2022, he received the Rossier School’s Adjunct Faculty Teaching Award, with the recognition that as “one of the nation’s leading legal voices supporting access, diversity and inclusion,” he “does a masterful job at simplifying complex concepts and highlighting the complexities of seemingly simple concepts.”

He has testified before the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.  He is a current Executive Committee member of the Board of Directors of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA); and he is a past member of the Board of Directors of GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network); the Lab School of Washington, which serves students with learning differences; and a past chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Higher Education Policy.

A former litigator, Mr. Coleman is a 1984 honors graduate of Duke University School of Law and a 1981 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Virginia. 

Art Coleman shared a few links to examples of things he mentioned in the podcast:

https://educationcounsel.com/?publication=engaging-campus-stakeholders-on-enrollment-issues-associated-with-student-diversity-a-communications-primer

https://professionals.collegeboard.org/pdf/playbook-understanding-race-neutral-strategies.pdf

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