Harvard Admissions.Photo:Getty
Getty
Three Boston-area legal groups are demanding Harvard stop practicing legacy admissions.
“This preferential treatment has nothing to do with an applicant’s merit. Instead, it is an unfair and unearned benefit that is conferred solely based on the family that the applicant is born into,” Lawyers for Civil Rights said in anews release, according toCNN. “This custom, pattern, and practice is exclusionary and discriminatory. It severely disadvantages and harms applicants of color.”
The NAACP has also joined the effort asking more than 1,500 colleges and universities to end legacy admissions, according to theAssociated Press.
“Your family’s last name and the size of your bank account are not a measure of merit, and should have no bearing on the college admissions process,” Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, told theNew York Times.
President Biden has publicly supported a reconsideration of legacy admissions, announcing that he would ask the Department of Education to look into “practices like legacy admissions and other systems that expand privilege instead of opportunity.”
But, in a prepared statement, the university said “Last week, the University reaffirmed its commitment to the fundamental principle that deep and transformative teaching, learning, and research depend upon a community comprising people of many backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences.”
The statement continued: “As we said, in the weeks and months ahead, the University will determine how to preserve our essential values, consistent with the Court’s new precedent.”
The complaint comes just days after the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling, overturning decades-long precedent affirming the role of race-conscious admissions. After hearing arguments in a pair of cases, including from Harvard themselves, the Court ruled that any consideration of race in the admissions process violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution.
“While this Court has recognized a ‘tradition of giving a degree of deference to a university’s academic decisions,’ it has made clear that deference must exist ‘within constitutionally prescribed limits,'” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote. “[The universities] have failed to present an exceedingly persuasive justification for separating students on the basis of race that is measurable and concrete enough to permit judicial review, as the Equal Protection Clause requires.”
Many public figures have come out in opposition to the Court’s ruling, including Charles Barkley, 60. Thebasketball legend pledged to rewrite his will, leaving $5 million to his alma mater Auburn University, exclusively earmarked for scholarships for Black students.
source: people.com
