Reaffirming Lived Experiences in the College Admissions Process

In the sixth stop of the Affirmative Action Listening Tour Talk series, the Higher Education Team caught up with Dr. OiYan Poon, enrollment management expert, student affairs professional, and prominent higher education researcher. Dr. Poon’s research has focused on college access and affirmative action, primarily on the Asian-American student experience. Her advocacy and research stem from firsthand experience as an admissions reader at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) following Proposition 209.

At the beginning of this interview, Dr. Poon makes it known to viewers that most Asian Americans support and benefit from affirmative action. Ed Blum, political strategist and founder of Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), has weaponized Asian Americans in his campaign against affirmative action. Consequently, the general public, policymakers, and institutional leaders must educate themselves about affirmative action and its significance, irrespective of the Supreme Court's decision, to reevaluate and dispel any misconceptions disseminated about Asian Americans.

Dr. Poon highlights the importance of race being more than a checkbox on college applications. Instead, it is a symbol that encompasses the experience of many students' lived experiences. As a former student affairs professional, Dr. Poon highlights the need for diverse faculty and staff along with cultural and ethnic-specific programming and resources on college campuses. Students of color feel more empowered to pursue higher education when they see themselves reflected on campus and amongst university staff.

Finally, Dr. Poon concludes the conversation by calling for unity and a reaffirmation of American values, emphasizing the need to keep having conversations and be ready to build things back up, problem-solve, and address racism in higher education from a grassroots level. With an affirmative action ban already in place, she uplifts California and Michigan's efforts to increase diversity and promote equitable pathways to postsecondary success. Although these states’ enrollment numbers at highly selective and selective colleges are low among students of color, they are still committed, no matter what, to affirming student identities in their higher education system. Whether affirmative action is overturned or not, Dr. Poon urges universities not to shy away from collecting data as it can help promote and sustain diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

Here are some additional highlights from our Listening Tour Talk with Dr. Poon:

• “We know these lawsuits against these universities are from the same rotten soil. What does it mean for me? How has racism affected my experiences and who I am today? And that can be many different ways for a lot of different people. And yes, in fact, racism does affect white people too. [It’s] a thing in the water in the air, and everything we do is racism, and so to tell universities, you can't even think about this and who you decide to bring in…It becomes dehumanizing to people in our stories and who we are.”

• “Sadly, and I think people need to be courageous in leading our institutions and our states to say, ‘Yeah, racism is a problem,’ and we need to learn, we need to figure out how to solve these big problems and shutting down that learning is not how we do it.”

• “Students want to say who they are. Let them say who they are. As an admissions reader, I didn't see the [race and ethnicity] box. Why? In what students talked about, they talked about their experiences, and quite frankly, it was racialized.”

To learn more, check out the entire conversation here.

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