By Ariane de Vogue/CNN

The conservative Supreme Court will meet Monday to consider whether colleges and universities can continue to take race into consideration as a factor in admissions, a case that could diminish the number of Black and Hispanic students in higher education.

Hanging in the balance is the future of admissions plans at hundreds of schools that have relied on court precedent for decades in order to achieve the educational benefits they say flow from student body diversity on campus.

With the fate of affirmative action in the hands of the Supreme Court, these graduates are fighting to save it

Challengers in the case are targeting Harvard and the University of North Carolina arguing that their programs violate equal protection principles, dash the promise of a colorblind society, and discriminate against Asian Americans. They are urging the court to overturn precedent and they say that the schools should explore and further develop race-neutral alternatives to achieve diversity.

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The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund is also supporting the school, rejecting the charge that race-conscious admissions policies discriminate against Asian Americans or perpetuate harmful stereotypes against them.

“The Asian American community is vast and varied, including first-generation college students and children whose parents’ professions secured their immigration; children of working-class refugees and multigenerational Americans; speakers of over 300 languages; aspiring entrepreneurs, artists, teachers, and more,” they argued. They say that Students for Fair Admission relies on “manipulated date” to attempt to demonstrate that Asian Americans with high test scores are admitted at lower rates than other racial groups.