Why is Harvard accused of favoring white students? – 7/4/2023 – Education

The old and controversial practice of Harvard University, in the United States, of favoring the admission of candidates who have family ties with the institution is now facing legal action.

the calls legacy admissions —something like “legacy admissions”—facilitate admission for students whose parents or relatives either studied at Harvard or donated money to the institution.

The beneficiaries are mostly white Americans, since most of America’s elite universities only started admitting students from minority groups a generation ago.

As a result, legacy admissions have long been seen as an advantage for the white and wealthy.

A civil society organization filed a lawsuit this Monday (07/03) asking the government to prevent the continuation of this type of admission.

The lawsuit comes just days after the US Supreme Court ruled that Harvard and other US universities can no longer consider race as a key factor in admissions, for example with affirmative action for blacks and Latinos.

In a historic decision on Thursday (29/06), the country’s highest court voted 6 to 3 to revoke affirmative action, a measure that has existed for decades in the country.

Spurred by last week’s ruling, Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) — a Boston-based nonprofit organization — has filed a federal lawsuit against Harvard.

LCR argues that the university gives “special preference in its admissions process to hundreds of mostly white students — not because of anything they’ve accomplished, but just because of who their relatives are.”

The organization defends that the legacy admissions violates an article of the Civil Rights Act and points to data from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

They show that nearly 70% of applicants admitted through “legacy” are white and that these students are six to seven times more likely to be admitted to Harvard than those who do not apply through this category.

The NBER study adds that, of the total number of new white students at the university, more than 43% entered through legacy admissions, because they were part of the dean’s interest list, because they were athletes or children of faculty and staff.

Harvard declined to comment on the case.

Filed on behalf of three groups representing Black and Latino communities in the New England area, the lawsuit asks the New England Department of Education to investigate Harvard’s legacy admissions, deem them illegal and order the university to end the practice if want to continue receiving federal funding.

“There is no birthright at Harvard,” LCR Executive Director Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal said in a statement.

“As the Supreme Court recently noted, ‘Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.’

He added, “Why are we rewarding young people for privileges and advantages accumulated by previous generations? Your family name and the size of your bank account are not a measure of merit and should not influence the college admissions process.”

Congresswoman Barbara Lee agreed. The California Democrat wrote on Twitter: “Let’s be clear: Affirmative action still exists for white people. It’s called legacy admission.”

Harvard declined to comment on Monday’s lawsuit, but forwarded its response to the BBC last week regarding the Supreme Court ruling.

In last Thursday’s statement, the university said it would continue to welcome “people from many backgrounds, perspectives and experiences.”

Legacy admissions have already been banned at institutions such as the University of California and all public universities in Colorado.

However, such admissions still account for nearly a quarter of new students at some top universities – which argue that the initiative builds a strong alumni community and donor base.

This report was originally published here.