With affirmative action gone, California shows what may come next

Just after lunch on a Thursday afternoon in late April, a chilly breeze and overcast sky have mostly blocked the sun from smiling on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara. The assistant director for diversity initiatives, Marcus Mathis, and a student helper from one of the school’s fraternities pile used paper plates, plastic utensils, and waste into huge trash bags.

Almost 200 mostly Black students from six high schools in Southern California’s Woodland Hills, some 80 miles southeast, have just left UCSB’s Loma Pelona Center. They spent...