Beginning in September 2025, California will no longer permit reputation admittance to any of its colleges, and then another Democrat-led states are under pressure to do the same.
” Legacy admissions were bad from the beginning”, the editorial board of the Harvard Crimson wrote Oct. 18. ” And now that racial action has fallen, they have become totally unacceptable, placing another hand on the scale for light and powerful applicants”.
If the school does n’t, the editor demanded that Massachusetts stop the practice.
A New York Daily News newspaper Oct. 2 was headlined:” Learning from California: Ban school tradition admissions and mobile phones in open schools”.
New York state senator Andrew Gounardes, who has supported legislation to outlaw the practice, reposted the newspaper on X, saying “it’s time to pass my Fair College Admissions Act and boycott cruel school tradition tastes once and for all.”
In California, Gov. After state open classrooms ended the exercise in 1998, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill, AB 1780, into law on September 30th, adding that it would expand the state’s limitations to include private institutions.
” In California, all should be able to get back through merit, talent, and hard work. The California Dream should n’t be accessible to just a lucky few, which is why we’re opening the door to higher education wide enough for everyone, fairly”, Newsom said in a statement.
Schools will be required to submit an annual report to show compliance with the restrictions, and institutions who violate the law will have to provide more details about their upcoming course, including” the legacy position, donor position, competition, county of residence, income brackets, and athletic status of newly enrolled students”.
Other than having their names appear on the Department of Justice website, there is no specific punishment for universities that do n’t comply.
The law most notably affects Stanford and University of Southern California, two of the state’s most prestigious private schools. Students at USC and 13.8 percent of the freshman class at Stanford made up 14.4 percent of the total freshman class in 2022.
The proposed legislation wo n’t become effective until September 2025. Stanford will continue to review its admissions procedures during that time, according to a statement from a Stanford spokesman to The College Fix.
USC will also be reevaluating its admissions procedures.
A university spokesperson told The College Fix that “each admitted student adheres to our high academic standards through a contextualized holistic review that values each student’s lived experience, considers how they will contribute to the vibrancy of our campus, thrive in our community, benefit from a USC education, and fulfill the commitments of our unifying values,” according to a university spokesperson. We” continue to improve our recruitment, admission, and financial aid programs to create a student body that is diverse in every way and who always adheres to the law.”
The Supreme Court’s contentious decision, which prohibited colleges from taking race into account in admissions, is less than two years old, ending affirmative action at universities. Many on the left, including Newsom, who claimed at the time that” the path to equal opportunity has now been narrowed for millions of students,” were outraged at the time.
In a recent news release, Newsom’s office explicitly linked the signing of September’s bill to last year’s Supreme Court decision.
” The U. S. Supreme Court issued a ruling last summer restricting the use of race in college admissions”, his office said. In light of this change, AB 1780’s supporters advocated for admissions criteria that additionally ensure that factors like wealth or personal relationships do not unfairly influence admissions decisions.
Legacy admissions restrictions have become more prevalent in recent years, with Maryland, Colorado, Illinois, and Virginia outlawing them for both public and private schools. And after California’s law, pressure is increasing in other states.
Some groups are not pleased with Newsom’s decision, however.
Wenyuan Wu, executive director of Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, told The College Fix,” It is unclear how the state’s Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Enforcement Section plans to enforce the ban given that the law applies to private schools.” ” More importantly, the ban does nothing to address ongoing attempts for racial balancing among California’s postsecondary institutions”.
She predicted that progressive states will soon start banning legacy admissions.
The ban is a response to the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision, and it is also only a few years removed from the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal from 2019, where famous celebrities and wealthy people fabricatedly increased their children’s chances of being accepted into prestigious universities. Over 50 people were charged with criminal offenses, stoking a debate about fairness in the admissions process for college.
Assemblymember Phil Ting, who contributed to AB 1780, said in a statement on the day the bill was signed that “hard work, good grades, and a well-rounded background should earn you a spot in the incoming class.” Not your family’s or your family’s ability to identify you in the check’s size.
MORE: Several universities end legacy admissions after affirmative action ruled unconstitutional
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