A civil rights legal group is challenging legacy admissions at Harvard University, saying the practice discriminates against students of color by giving an unfair boost to the mostly white children of alumni.
  •  soiling   ( @soiling@beehaw.org ) English
    3•1 year ago

    oops. I missed this somehow when I recently posted a different article about the same thing. I deleted mine since it’s redundant.

    for readers, here’s a summary of some facts in quotes from that article

    Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) - a Boston-based non-profit - filed a federal civil rights complaint on Monday against Harvard

    The federal complaint comes days after the Supreme Court ruled Harvard and other US colleges could no longer weigh race as a key factor in admissions.

    nearly 70% of legacy and donor-related applicants are white, and … such students are six to seven times more likely to be admitted to Harvard than non-legacy applicants

    Legacy admissions have already been banned at institutions including the University of California and all of Colorado’s public universities, with several efforts targeting the practice elsewhere.

    [legacy admission] still accounts for nearly a quarter of newly admitted students at some of the nation’s top schools, and supporters argue the policy builds a strong alumni community and donor base.

    •  Dominic   ( @Dominic@beehaw.org ) English
      4•1 year ago

      The “strong alumni community and donor base” does nothing to help society at large when these prestigious universities sit on billions of dollars in endowments instead of actually growing the universities.

      Harvard, Yale, and Princeton combined have 40,000 students (and they combine for about $170 billion in their endowments). UC Berkeley, a public university of comparable prestige, has 45,000 students (with a pittance of $7 billion in its endowment)

      Why accept these unqualified students for their money when you aren’t planning to spend the money you already have?