WASHINGTON (AP) — The civil rights group is tough The legacy of acceptance At Harvard, he said, the practice discriminates against students of color by giving an unfair payment to the children of mostly white alumni.
It is the latest effort in a growing push against legacy admissions, the practice of prioritizing admissions to the children of graduates. The backlash against the practice has been building in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision last week to end affirmative action in college admissions.
Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston-based nonprofit, filed the lawsuit Monday on behalf of Black and Latino community groups in New England, alleging that Harvard’s admissions system violates the Civil Rights Act.
“Why do we reward children for the privileges and advantages acquired by previous generations?” said Ivan Espinosa Madrigal, Group CEO. “Your family last name and the size of your bank account are not a measure of merit, and they should have no bearing on the college admissions process.”
Opponents say the practice is no longer tenable without it affirmative action Provide balance. The court ruling says colleges should ignore applicants’ ethnicity, campaigners point out, but schools can still give a boost to the children of alumni and donors.
A separate campaign is urging alumni of 30 prestigious colleges to hold off on donations until their schools end their outdated admissions processes. This initiative, led by Ed Mobilizer, also targets Harvard and other Ivy League schools.
President Joe Biden suggested last week that universities should rethink the practice, saying the old admissions “expands privilege rather than opportunity.”
Several Democrats in Congress have called for an end to the policy in light of the court’s decision, along with Republicans including Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is vying for the Republican presidential nomination.
The new lawsuit builds on Harvard data that came to light amid an affirmative action case brought to the Supreme Court. Records revealed that 70% of applicants related to Harvard donors are white, and that being a longtime student makes an applicant nearly six times more likely to be accepted.
It draws attention to other colleges that have abandoned the practice amid questions about its fairness, including Amherst College and Johns Hopkins University.
The suit claims that Harvard’s legacy preference is unrelated to merit and takes slots from qualified students of color. He asks the US Department of Education to declare the practice illegal and force Harvard to drop it as long as the university receives federal funding. Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
According to the complaint, “a place awarded to an applicant that is legacy or related to a donor is a place that becomes unavailable to an applicant who meets admission criteria based solely on his or her entitlement.” If the old preferences and donor preferences were removed, he adds, “more students of color would be accepted to Harvard.”
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Chica Project, the African Community Economic Development of New England, and the Greater Boston Latino Network.
It is not clear exactly which schools provide legacy support and how much they help. In California, where state law requires schools to disclose the practice, USC reported that 14% of students admitted last year had family ties to alumni or donors. Stanford reported a similar rate.
that Associated Press survey of the nation’s most selective colleges Last year he found that the old students in the freshman class ranged from 4% to 23%. At four schools—Notre Dame, USC, Cornell, and Dartmouth—old students outnumbered black students.
Supporters of the policy say it builds the alumni community and encourages donations. A 2022 study of an undisclosed college in the Northeast found that legacy students were more likely to be donors, but at the expense of diversity—the vast majority were white.
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