Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA)

As of 2022, Students for Fair Admissions has filed lawsuits challenging admissions practices at Harvard University, the University of North Carolina, and the University of Texas. ³

Activities

Students for Fair Admissions claims that racial preferences in the college admissions process are unfair, unnecessary, and unconstitutional. SFFA participates in litigation intending to restore what it claims to be the original principles of the Civil Rights Movement, specifically that a student’s race or ethnicity should neither help nor harm a student’s chances of being admitted to a competitive university. ¹

In its 2014 filing against Harvard, Students for Fair Admissions alleged that Harvard violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by engaging in intentional discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity. SFFA further claimed that the “Harvard Plan,” which Harvard advocated for in the 1978 Regents of the University of California v. Bakke case, misled the U.S. Supreme Court into believing that race would not be a predominant factor in admissions, each applicant would be treated as an individual, and the scrutiny of applicants would be race neutral, except as a last resort. ⁴

In its 2014 filing against the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, Students for Fair Admissions alleged that UNC violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. SFFA claimed that UNC’s admissions policies intentionally and unconstitutionally discriminated against applicants on the basis of race and ethnicity. ⁵ Students for Fair Admissions filed a similar complaint against the University of Texas at Austin in 2020. ⁶

On January 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear suits filed by Students for Fair Admissions alleging that Harvard and the University of North Carolina have race-based admissions policies that are discriminatory against Asian-American students. SFFA claims that Harvard’s policies make it more likely for a black student in the fourth-lowest decile to be admitted than an Asian American in the top decile. ⁷

In June 2026, the Wisconsin State Supreme Court ruled in Konkanok Rabiebna vs Higher Educational Aids Board to reverse the decision in the Jefferson County circuit court that upheld the creation of a Students for Fair Election-backed “Minority Undergraduate Retention Grant Program” that provided financial aid to Wisconsin state university students based on “specified race, national origin, ancestry, or alienage-based groups.” ⁸

Funding

Students for Fair Admissions is funded by donations from individuals, foundations, and corporations. While Students for Fair Admissions does not disclose its donors, tax filings confirm donations from Donors Trust ($1.5 million in 2018), ⁹ the Searle Freedom Trust ($500,000 in 2019), ¹⁰ and the Sarah Scaife Foundation ($250,000 in 2019). ¹¹

Board of Directors

Edward Blum is the president of Students for Fair Admissions and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ¹²

Other board members include Richard Fisher, treasurer; Abigail Fisher, secretary; Alex Chen; Joe Zhou; and Hua Eva Guo. ¹³