California Bans Legacy Admissions At Private, Nonprofit Universities (politico.com)
- Reference: 0175162711
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/30/2035213/california-bans-legacy-admissions-at-private-nonprofit-universities
- Source link: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/30/california-bans-legacy-admissions-colleges-00181655
> It will soon be [1]illegal for public and private universities in California to consider an applicant's relationship to alumni or donors when deciding whether to admit them. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday [2]signed a ban on the practice known as legacy admissions, a change that will affect prestigious institutions including Stanford University and the University of Southern California. California's law, which will take effect Sept. 1, 2025, is the nation's fifth legacy admissions ban, but only the second that will apply to private colleges. "In California, everyone should be able to get ahead through merit, skill, and hard work," Newsom said in a statement. "The California Dream shouldn't be accessible to just a lucky few, which is why we're opening the door to higher education wide enough for everyone, fairly."
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> Like other states, California won't financially penalize violators, but it will post the names of violators on the state Department of Justice's website. California will also add to data reporting requirements that it implemented in 2022, when private colleges had to start sharing the percentage of admitted students who were related to donors and alumni. Schools that run afoul of the new law will also have to report more granular demographic information about their incoming classes to the state, including the race and income of enrolled students as well as their participation in athletics. [...] Public universities in California won't be affected by the change. California State University does not consider legacy or donor ties, and the University of California system stopped doing so in 1998, two years after California voters banned race-conscious admissions through a statewide ballot measure.
[1] https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/30/california-bans-legacy-admissions-colleges-00181655
[2] https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/09/30/california-bans-legacy-and-donor-preferences-in-admissions-at-private-nonprofit-universities/
"wide enough for everyone, fairly" (Score:1)
...except, of course, for those who don't fall into a DEI category of some sort.
I think you forgot something, Gov. Newsom (Score:2)
> "In California, everyone should be able to get ahead through merit, skill, and hard work," Newsom said in a statement
What about crippling student loan debt ? I suppose that falls under that whole "hard work" umbrella...
That's great. (Score:2)
Legacy admissions are pretty foul, but they probably provide the school with a lot of donations from rich parents who were former alumni. I'd be okay to placing some limits on them, but an outright ban seems like it might have unintended consequences.
The real access/"equity" problem with college nowadays is the cost. [1]College costs rise at the same rate as government subsidies [visualcapitalist.com] and other loan and student aid programs increase. The cost of college in the 1950's was negligible and people regularly worked th
[1] https://www.visualcapitalist.com/rising-cost-of-college-in-u-s/
Merit, skill and hard work? (Score:2)
You mean they can't admit people based on who can and can't afford the tuition? You will notice they didn't pass a law that ONLY considers merit, skill and hard work. You can still admit people based on their family's prominence or recommendations or ...
"everyone should be able to get ahead..." (Score:2)
"...through merit, skill, and hard work"
Excellent idea in theory!
In practice, however, there is no perfect way to accurately measure "merit, skill, and hard work". It's all still subjective with lots of room for incompetence, favoritism and corruption