Owen Whaley ‘24
Chief News Editor
The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn race-based affirmative action in college admissions this past June resulted in renewed calls for the end of legacy admissions.
“We need a higher education system that works for everyone, from Appalachia to Atlanta and far beyond. We can and must do better, and we will,” remarked President Biden from the White House an hour following the decision, adding that he would direct the Department of Education to examine “legacy admissions and other systems that expand privilege instead of opportunity.”
Within weeks, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-O.R.) and Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY-16) introduced legislation that would bar colleges and universities from maintaining legacy preferences. “As the first in my family to go to college, I know the struggles facing students whose parents have never been through the process before,” said Merkley in a statement. “Children of donors and alumni may be excellent students and well-qualified, but they are the last people who should get an additional leg-up in the complicated and competitive college admissions process.”
Their proposed legislation has thus far failed to attract bipartisan support. Last week, however, Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Todd Young (R-IN) introduced new legislation banning legacy preferences for children of alumni and donors. “A student’s acceptance into a college should not hinge on whether their parents attended that school or donated a large sum of money,” said Kaine.
“America is a land of opportunity, not a land of aristocracy,” added Young.
The history of legacy admissions is deeply intertwined with that of nativism and prejudice. Emerging in the 1920s, legacy preferences were first implemented by Ivy League institutions — Dartmouth in 1922, Yale in 1925, followed by Harvard and Princeton — as an effort to maintain White Anglo-Saxon Protestant dominance in higher education amid influxes of Catholic and Jewish immigration.
Legacy admissions policies were but one tool implemented by elites “that preserved their social advantages and limited the immigrants’ access to power, privilege, and prestige,” wrote scholars Deborah Coe and James Davidson in a 2011 study which found legacy applicants to Harvard are more than four times as likely to be admitted.
Not all colleges and universities offer preferential admission to the children of alumni. In recent years, a growing number of institutions, including Johns Hopkins, Wesleyan, and Amherst College, have moved away from legacy admissions.
“These efforts are not a panacea for the structural inequities that plague our society,” wrote Johns Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels in the Atlantic in 2020. “But they are necessary if American universities are truly to fulfill their democratic promise to be ladders of mobility for all.”
Other schools, including M.I.T. and the University of California, have never practiced legacy admissions at all.
“I personally would not work for a college which had legacy admission because I am not interested in simply reproducing a multigenerational lineage of educated elite,” wrote Chris Peterson, an M.I.T. admissions officer, in 2012. “And if anyone in our office ever advocated for a mediocre applicant on the basis of their ‘excellent pedigree’ they would be kicked out of the committee room.”
In March, before the Supreme Court issued its decision, President Vincent Rougeau told the Boston Globe that Holy Cross was not actively considering overturning legacy admissions, but acknowledged the complexity of the issue. “Like any practice of this type, it can be beneficial and it can be abused,” he said, adding that the practice could be useful in fostering alumni loyalty but detrimental to first-generation applicants.
By the turn of the Fall semester, however, Holy Cross administrators appeared to be reconsidering their position. “I know many in our community have questions about the changes underway in higher education admissions as a result of the Supreme Court decision on Affirmative Action and pending challenges to legacy admissions,” wrote Cornell B. LeSane II, Vice President for Enrollment Management, in a Sept. 6 message to the campus community. “With respect to legacy admission, the College’s leadership team and Board of Trustees are engaging in dialogue with campus community members this year to reconsider our admissions practices.”
Many Holy Cross students express that legacy status should not be considered in admissions decisions. “Legacy-based admissions singlehandedly contribute to the lack of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and thoughts at Holy Cross,” says one senior. “If we hope to become an institution that prioritizes inclusive excellence, we must broaden our horizons to consider legacy students on the same level as students from a multitude of backgrounds, especially first-generation students.”
A freshman remarks, “If the College elevates legacy applicants, it will comprise a less qualified student body. If the College does not elevate legacy students, the reverse will be true.”
Still, Holy Cross as an institution has been fundamentally shaped by legacy admissions. Families with generational ties to the College contribute to the formation of a community that extends far beyond the Hill. Many students express that their initial interest in Holy Cross stemmed from conversations with family members who graduated from the College. During tailgates, it is not uncommon to find vehicles of students alongside their purple-clad parents and grandparents, themselves Holy Cross graduates.
“Legacy admissions is a privilege that many students at Holy Cross have but do not recognize,” says Lillian Chapman ‘24. “You can ask any student at Holy Cross if they have someone in their family that went to Holy Cross and most would say yes.”
Asked whether administrators had reached a decision, Nicoleta Jordan, Director of Public Relations, replied, “Holy Cross does not have a ‘legacy admissions’ policy. We do consider legacy as one factor among many others. Our main criteria for admitting students involves careful consideration of their academic profile, lived experience, recommendations, and community contributions. That said, the College’s leadership team and Board of Trustees are in the process of reevaluating our approach to legacy admissions to determine whether that should change going forward. We will share any changes in our approach once decisions are made.”
Featured image: The Supreme Court ruled race-based affirmative action in college admissions unconstitutional in June /courtesy of Gallup News.
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