The Georgetown University College Democrats have been lobbying the D.C. Council to end legacy admissions at public and private schools in the city.
The group’s Furthering Admissions Inclusion and Representation proposal would ban admissions preferences for applicants who are related to former students as well as those related to major donors. Historically black colleges and universities would not be affected by the ban.
Since the Supreme Court overturned race-based admissions practices at institutions of higher education in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, many advocates have responded by going after legacy admissions at schools as well.
Last week, the Virginia House of Delegates unanimously approved a bill to ban legacy admissions at public universities, and the Commonwealth’s Senate did the same the week prior. Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) appears poised to sign the bill, saying in a recent statement that he “believes admission to Virginia’s universities and colleges should be based on merit.”
Georgetown Democrats are using neighboring Virginia’s move as momentum in their push for a “first of its kind” public and private ban, according to a press release.
Statistics cited by the group from 2017 show that legacy applicants were favored at a rate of 30% for admissions, compared to nonlegacy applicants who see an admissions rate of 15.4%. They also pointed to another article from 2020 claiming one out of 10 students at Georgetown hold legacy status and boasted about the “91.6% increase in underrepresented minorities” at Johns Hopkins University when it decided to end legacy admissions.
The College Democrats have also circulated a petition calling on Georgetown specifically to end the use of legacy admissions, regardless of what the D.C. Council does.
Other lawmakers and schools are making similar moves.
In November, Sens. Todd Young (R-IN) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced a bill to block consideration of legacy and donor relationships in admissions.
“America is a land of opportunity, not a land of aristocracy,” Young said at the time. “Legacy admissions restrict opportunities for many bright and talented young Americans and provide unmerited advantage to the most connected individuals in our society. Our bill will end legacy preferences in the admissions process and promote upward mobility for Americans of all backgrounds.”
Education Reform Now, an activist organization, reported that in 2020, about half of institutions of higher education used some form of legacy consideration when deciding admissions. Roughly 100 schools have ended their use of legacy in admissions since 2015, but 787 still considered it in 2020.
Lawmakers in Connecticut and Maryland are also making moves to ban legacy admissions.
Harvard University, which has been rocked with scandal in recent months and was at the center of the Supreme Court case ending affirmative action, has also seen renewed calls to end its legacy admission policy.
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The highly selective, elite private school signaled it would try to defy the Supreme Court ruling by suggesting applicants talk about their race in admissions essays. Since the ouster of Claudine Gay as Harvard’s president, calls to protect a diversity, equity, and inclusion ideology at the forefront of the school have sparked an intense debate.
“In the face of attacks on Harvard by anti-DEI forces leading to the devastating loss of president Gay, Harvard must reaffirm its commitment to DEI and racial justice more forcefully than ever,” Harvard alumna Jane Sujen Bock, a board member of the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, said, according to the Boston Globe. “Abandoning legacy and donor preferences is one small step that Harvard can take to create a fairer, more inclusive university.”