The Class of 2028 offers a first look at college diversity after the end of affirmative action. The picture isn’t clear

A murky portrait is beginning to emerge of the Class of 2028 – one that’s left some experts warning about the long-term effects of a lack of diversity on campus.

Samantha Greene, a junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said she quickly noticed a difference in the student body when she stepped on campus in August. As president of the Black Student Movement at the state’s flagship university, Greene said this year’s Black Student Convocation, an event that welcomes first year students and connects them to resources on campus, was much smaller than it’s been in the past. “We’ve definitely noticed a significant decrease in not just attendance, but in the presence of Black students on campus,” Greene said. “We know each other, we talk to each other and there is just less of them.” Last week, UNC Chapel Hill released a profile of incoming freshman and transfer students that shows in the year since the US Supreme Court gutted affirmative action in college admissions, the number of Black students admitted to the university dropped from 10.5% to 7.8% – a decrease of around 25%. Harvard University also experienced a similar drop in Black enrollment, according to data released this week which shows a 22% decrease in Black freshmen when compared to the year before. Both schools were named as plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case that ended the long-held practice of considering race and ethnicity in college admissions. “I chose this school because I saw the robust amount of diversity that was here and the results of it as well,” Greene said of UNC. “So, to see that kind of go a little bit down the gutter definitely has me thinking about my choice to be here.”