Bill Would Make Colleges Report Legacies and Early Admissions

Wall Street Journal ^ | October 29, 2003 | Daniel Golden

[Recourse]

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June upholding affirmative action in college admissions appeared to quell the growing clamor against other admissions preferences that favor white applicants.

But now the movement to curb so-called white affirmative action has re-emerged, in Congress.

[Recourse]

I oppose affirmative action in every form, but making colleges submit their legacy admissions to the federal government is an gross overreach. As far as I am concerned, if you are going to force colleges to admit minority applicants who wouldn't otherwise qualify, then the colleges should be able to admit wealthy applicants who wouldn't otherwise qualify.

[Rodney King]

There is a big difference between the two preferences: The constitution does not prohibt preferences for legacies. It does prohibt racial discrimination.

[Rodney King]

Economic status would be measured by a student's eligibility for Pell grants, a form of federal financial aid.

So it sounds like what they are going to do is make kids who don't want Pell grants fill out the Pell grant applications anyway, meaning every parent who wants to send his/her kid to college must disclose all his tax info to the school.

[Trailerpark Badass]

"College admission systems should promote diversity, reward achievement, and be fair," said Sen. Kennedy, ranking Democrat on the Senate education committee.

Of course, unless it involves Fat Teddy, the cheater and dullard.

[pogo101]

I agree. One "little" difference between legacy preferences and racial ones is that the latter are, oh, unconstitutional and a Title VI violation.

[petitfour]

This is more of the Bubba Third Way BS: Equal opportunity for all, special privilege for none. Except him and his, of course. I wonder what the current POTUS thinks of this.

Should private schools be allowed to do whatever they want in regards to admissions? Oh yeah. They can't do that because they accept federal $$$$$$$$$$, and, therefore, they must do as the federal $$$$ dictates.