As the dust begins to settle after the Supreme Court’s earth-shattering decision to gut race-conscious affirmative action — attention has shifted towards a much less defensible form of admissions preferences. Legacy admissions programs, which many argue are just affirmative action for rich white people, are squarely in the hot seat these days.
While some schools have decided to do away with legacy admissions of their own volition, most highly selective schools are holding onto alumni preferences with an iron fist. Now, the Biden administration is signaling that they’re going to do something about it.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said that he was interested in doing whatever he could to discourage the use of preferences for children of alumni and donors.
“I would be interested in pulling whatever levers I can pull as secretary of Education to ensure that, especially if we’re giving out financial aid and loans, that we’re doing it for institutions that are providing value,” Cardona told the AP.
His department recently announced an investigation into Harvard University’s legacy admissions program. The Department of Education was following up on a complaint filed by the Lawyers for Civil Rights, who argued that legacy admissions violated civil rights law by disadvantaging students of color.
The complaint noted that almost 70 percent of legacy and donor-related applicants to Harvard are white and that those applicants are nearly seven times more likely to be admitted to the university than their peers.
Other studies focused on income have noted a clear advantage that legacy admissions give to wealthy applicants. A recent study found that controlling for test scores ( which also correlates highly to income), students from the top 1 percent were significantly more likely to be admitted into highly selective colleges (i.e., the Ivy-plus schools).
Unless we address the underlying factors making it harder for students of color and students who don’t come from wealthy backgrounds, Cardona and other experts on this issue argue that we’re doomed to move backward.