The Biden administration recently issued a preliminary proposal to broaden the categories of race and ethnicity counted in the U.S. Census, giving Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) and Latinx populations more options for self-identification, The Washington Post reported.
"Federal race and ethnicity standards are inherently complex because they seek to capture dynamic and fluid sociopolitical constructs," the Office of Management and Budget said in the proposal released Friday. In the years since census standards were last revised in 1997, "there have been large societal, political, economic, and demographic shifts in the United States."
The proposed changes would collect race and ethnicity in a single question—they are currently calculated separately, which many believe depresses the Hispanic total, Inside Higher Ed reported. The proposal would also create a new category for MENA respondents—who are currently counted as White—and new subcategories for Hispanic and Latinx respondents, including Black (for Afro-Latinos), white, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Mexican. It would also allow multiracial individuals to check more than one box.
The proposed expansion of race and ethnicity categories would allow the U.S. Census Bureau to recognize more distinct communities throughout the country. Additionally, the updated counts could be used to allocate needed resources to specific populations.
AACRAO believes that the Biden administration's proposal would provide more visibility and support for the diverse populations on college campuses, but acknowledges that the changes would require institutions to update admissions data collection forms and analysis procedures, add additional fields within student information systems (SIS), and prompt student self-classifications or reclassifications. Implementing such changes at the institutional—as well as at the SIS vendor—level would require time and planning.
However, presuming that the administration provides the higher education community with a reasonable timeline for implementation, the association supports the proposed changes to allow learners to more accurately reflect their race and ethnic identities.
Related Links
White House Blog Post
https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/briefing-room/2023/01/26/initial-proposals-for-revising-the-federal-race-and-ethnicity-standards/
The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/01/30/census-proposal-latino-middle-eastern/
Inside Higher Ed
https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2023/02/13/biden-proposes-changes-us-census