Md. Senator Van Hollen launches effort to ban legacy preference in college admissions

WASHINGTON (7News) — A trio of political leaders including U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., launched an effort Wednesday to reintroduce a bill that would ban legacy preference in college admissions.

The announcement was held at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., where U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley D-OR, and Representative Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y. were also in attendance.

The bicameral reintroduction of legislation would outlaw preferences for children of alumni or donors at colleges that receive federal money, according to the Associated Press. It's being pushed by the party's progressive wing but has gained support from some conservative activists who want college admissions to be based on merit alone.

Legacy preferences give an extra boost to predominantly white and wealthy legacy students, while "leaving out millions of Black and Brown kids," said Bowman, according to the Associated Press.

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The legacy preference ban campaign follows the Supreme Court's decision to strike down the use of race in college admissions.

Many prestigious colleges defend legacy admissions, saying it helps build an alumni community and encourages donations. Officials at Harvard and other schools argue that legacy status is just one of many factors considered in admissions, along with grades, test scores and pursuits outside school. At most, they say, it can provide a slight tip in a student's favor.

Still, at least two colleges have ended the practice, giving opponents hope that others will follow.

Amherst College in Massachusetts dropped the policy in October of 2021, saying it "inadvertently limits educational opportunity."

Johns Hopkins University announced in 2020 that it had phased out legacy preferences. Since then, the school has drawn growing numbers of Black and Hispanic students, along with those from low-income families.

The pushback against legacy preferences is advancing amid a broader debate over fairness in college admissions.

Most schools are not required to disclose how many legacy students they enroll, and many keep it private. Among the nation's 30 most selective colleges, only eight provided basic data on the subject in response to an AP request.

At those colleges, the share of legacy students in this year's freshman class averaged 12%. The lowest share was at Rice University in Houston, where 4% of this year's first-year class had legacy status. The University of Notre Dame said legacy students have averaged 23% of the student body over the past decade.

Legacy students outnumbered Black students in freshman classes at four schools: Notre Dame, Cornell, Dartmouth and the University of Southern California. At Brown, the share of legacy and Black students was about even.

Harvard refused to disclose details, but data made public during its trial over affirmative action showed that family ties carry outsize weight. From 2014 to 2019, the acceptance rate for legacy applicants was 34%, compared with 6% for applicants without legacy status, according to an analysis by the suit's plaintiffs.

Critics of the practice say it contributes to persistently low numbers of Black students at top colleges. During the racial reckoning following the May 2020 killing of George Floyd by police, hundreds of students at Georgetown University signed a letter calling for an end to legacy preference, saying it "relegates qualified Black students to second-tier status."

Historians have traced legacy preference to the 1920s as elite colleges sought to limit the number of Jewish students. It continued for decades at a time when the vast majority of college students in the U.S. were white men.

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With contributions from the Associated Press.