The Obama administration released new college admission guidelines in December in an attempt to increase racial diversity on campuses across the country.

However, members of the Brandeis administration do not expect the guidelines to have any effect on admissions at Brandeis.

"Most of the highly competitive universities like Brandeis that have a desire to remain accessible and diverse have gone to great efforts over the past several years to create [minority] recruitment programs and opportunities," said Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel in an interview with the Justice.

Dean of Admissions Mark Spencer also said that he did not think the guidelines will change anything about Brandeis' admissions process and that attaining a diverse student body is something that Brandeis has been doing well for years.

"For a school our size, to have 3,200 students and over a hundred countries represented, and students coming from all these different backgrounds, it's a pretty amazing thing to be able to have as diverse a population as we have," he said in an interview with the Justice.

Flagel also expressed pride in Brandeis' success in achieving diversity.

"In some ways, I think Brandeis represents the best of how affirmative action can be practiced in the admissions process," he said. "In other ways, it's a less pressing issue because we have such a highly-qualified pool that we don't have to make the adjustments that some other schools might have to make."

According to Flagel, nearly a fifth of the Class of the 2015 reported themselves as the first in their family to go to college.

Statistics on the Brandeis website report that the class of 2015 is 49 percent Caucasian, 12 percent international, four percent African-American, 13 percent Asian, six percent Hispanic and two percent multiethnic. Students of unknown or unreported race make up 14 percent of the class.

The federal report released on Dec. 2 titled "Guidance on the Voluntary Use of Race ?to Achieve Diversity in Post-Secondary Education," stated that "an institution may permissibly aim to achieve a critical mass of underrepresented students," and that "post-secondary institutions can voluntarily consider race to further the compelling interest of achieving diversity."

In a Department of Justice press release that accompanied the report, United States Attorney General Eric H. Holder stressed the importance of diversity on college campuses.

"Diverse learning environments promote development of analytical skills, dismantle stereotypes and prepare students to succeed in an increasingly interconnected world," he said.

Flagel echoed this sentiment, saying "in my experience in higher education, we really believe that a more diverse student body, representing divergent views and backgrounds, is advantageous to students themselves."

He also noted Brandeis' historical commitment to diversity. "[Brandeis is] an institution that was founded on the idea that higher education ought to be…open to students based on their merit and potential. Consistent with our mission we need to remain constant and vigilant about providing that access," he said.

Part of Brandeis' mission statement is that the school "seeks to build an academic community whose members have diverse cultures, backgrounds and life experiences" and "believes that diverse backgrounds and ideas are crucial to academic excellence," according to the University's website.

Both Brandeis administrators and the federal guidelines stress the importance of the holistic admissions process, which takes applicants' backgrounds and stories (which are often indicators of race) into account.

The guidelines state that "when an institution is taking an individual student's race into account in an admissions or selection process, it should conduct an individualized, holistic review of all applicants." They also warned against weighing the factor of race too heavily, saying that "race cannot be given so much weight that applicants are defined primarily by their race and are largely accepted or rejected on that basis."

"If we just wanted to admit students based on SAT scores, we wouldn't need admissions officers," said Spencer. "So these different life experiences are what come through the application. It's why you ask for essay questions and recommendation letters."