Legislators slam A&M over legacy admissions [VOMIT ALERT!]

Blood ties to alumni, sometimes known as the other affirmative action, are the deciding factor in the admission of more than 300 white Texas A&M University freshmen annually, according to data provided by the school.

Such students -- known as "legacy admits" -- equal roughly the overall total of blacks admitted to A&M each year. Only a handful of black students a year are admitted because of legacy points.

"That's a lot of kids being advantaged because A&M is where mommy and daddy went," said state Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston. "Clearly, if you want to go to A&M, it pays to be a legacy applicant rather than black. I wonder why no one's sued it on those grounds."

Legacy preference programs are receiving new attention as the nation's universities reassess admissions policies in the aftermath of last spring's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that race may be an admissions factor on a case-by-case basis. U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., recently filed a bill to require colleges to disclose the race and economic status of first-year students related to alumni, and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has called for an end to college legacy programs.

A&M's program is drawing particular fire because university President Robert Gates recently announced the university, now free from a court ruling prohibiting racial preferences, won't consider race in admissions. Coleman and other black legislators cited a seeming contradiction between Gates' rhetoric that students be admitted strictly because of merit and a program they say perpetuates class distinction and white advantage.

Gates, president for 1 1/2 years, said he doesn't have a gut-level feeling about legacies, much less a thought-out one, because he inherited the program and knows little about it. He said a task force will study its future.

The task force won't operate in a vacuum. State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, said he plans to file legislation to end A&M's program, as early as this spring if a special session is called. Burnam filed such bills twice before, but both died in committee.

Burnam said that because the data show so few minorities benefit from legacy preferences, he believes the school orchestrated protests of his bill by minorities during legislative hearings on one of his bills in 2001.

"I have never been as angry at state employees as I was at A&M's during those hearings," Burnam said. "Even then, I knew in my gut they were using minority kids to continue a program that reflects the past, meaning the institutional racism of the 20th century, rather than the future, which will be majority African American and Hispanic."

Typically, anywhere from 1,650 to more than 2,000 A&M applicants a year receive legacy points, so called because they reward the grandchildren, children or siblings of A&M graduates. Such applicants receive 4 points on a 100-point scale that also takes into account such factors as class rank, test scores, extracurricular activities, community service and others.

Most A&M applicants admitted with legacy points don't need them to get in. But in 2003, 312 whites were admitted who wouldn't have been without their alumni ties. In 2002, that figure was 321.

The legacy program was the difference for six blacks and 27 Hispanics in 2003, and three blacks and 25 Hispanics in 2002.

A&M officials noted that minority legacies are usually admitted at roughly the same rates as white legacies. They also stressed that having legacy points is no guarantee of being admitted.

"I wish I had the numbers for how many applicants with legacy points don't get in," said Frank Ashley, A&M's acting assistant provost for enrollment. "There are roughly as many of them. I know because I hear from alumni parents when their kid's application is rejected."

Although A&M announced in early December it won't consider race in admissions, Gates is pledging a greater commitment to recruiting minorities. Having already created a high-ranking position in the school's administration to oversee diversity efforts, Gates says he will create scholarships for students who come from lower-income families and beef up outreach efforts to large urban areas.

Legacy programs date to the 19th century, but they became more widespread in the early 20th century as universities became more selective. Ostensibly instituted to reward alumni support, they had the effect of limiting enrollment of Jews and other minorities.

Today, nearly all selective private universities and some public universities give an edge to legacies, largely to boost alumni giving. Rice is among Texas' private universities that take into account alumni ties -- it has no point system -- but A&M is the state's only public school with such a program.

The largest legacy population nationally is at Notre Dame, where sons and daughters of alumni comprise 23 percent of the student population. They're more than 10 percent at most elite private schools, including Harvard, Yale and Princeton.

At most top schools, legacy students are accepted at two or three times the rate of other applicants. Massachusetts' Amherst College, for example, accepts nearly half of alumni children who apply, compared with 17 percent of all applicants.

Because they aren't racially discriminatory on their face, legacy preferences are considered less vulnerable to legal challenge than affirmative action. Politically, though, their fates seem inextricably linked.

The University of Georgia, for instance, scrapped its legacy program after a circuit court struck down its affirmative action program. Critics cite studies that suggest alumni offspring score lower on admission tests. And legacy students sometimes describe an "uneasiness" about how they're perceived similar to that described by minorities.

But "unlike race, which is predominantly a proxy for disadvantage, legacy admissions are an attribute of advantage," University of Houston law professor Michael Olivas wrote in an article in the latest edition of the educational journal CASE Currents. "They typically come from well-educated families and therefore are privy to many economic, educational and other psychosocial benefits."

Ashley counters that A&M's admission categories include one that gives points for an applicant's parents' lack of education -- up to 6 points if neither parent finished high school. That balances it out, he said.

Although they also say legacy programs build a sense of community, most schools are candid about acknowledging that long-term financial support is the primary reason for preferences. Ashley said alumni parents of rejected applicants tell A&M they're going to stop donating money or not follow through on plans to give, though he has no idea how often they make good on such threats.

State Rep. Fred Brown, R-College Station, defends A&M's program but said he would like it better if it were amended to give legacy points to students whose parents went to Prairie View A&M, A&M-Kingsville and other schools in the A&M system. He said he will file a bill to effect that change at the Legislature's next regular session.

But if Burnam, Coleman and others have their way, A&M might not have a legacy program by then. Passage of Burnam's bill would make Texas the first state to ban legacy preferences, though some black legislators say they're more interested in getting A&M to consider race than to discontinue legacy preferences.

"Universities with a history of statistically small minority populations should tread carefully if they're going to maintain legacy programs," said Dan Oren, a Yale professor of psychiatry and the author of Joining the Club: A History of Jews and Yale. "They better have other minority outreach programs to make up for that."

For some reason the Houston Chronicle is very anti-A&M.

The Comical is so liberal biased that I finally canceled my subscription a year ago.

Why can't we get a second daily in this community of 4 million+ beats the hell out of me!

You don't understand A&M. My dad went to A&M, I went to A&M, both my brothers went to A&M, and my sister-in-law went to A&M. My niece just graduated from A&M last month, and my other niece and my nephew are attending now.

I went to A&M every year starting at the age of 8. I went to football games, I went to Final Review, and I went to graduations. I knew most of the football yells and the school songs before I ever went there.

I took classes in high school to prepare me for college to go to A&M.

One of my nieces and my nephew did the same thing.

A&M was the only school for each of us.

We loved it from an early age because we grew up with it. I definitely think legacy is important because those are the kids that love the University. Most of the student leaders are legacies. It just part of the university, and it's a very integral part of what makes A&M, A&M.

The students at UT are largely conservative voting for Bush in 2000 and Reagan in my day at the University. Of course there are liberal students but I am sure you will find Young Democrats at gay student organizations at A&M.

If the A&M were that good of a school the President's daughter would be in College Station but instead she is a Longhorn.

The reason we were able to attend and graduate is because it was our hometown university-- we could live at home and get a degree. Does that sound like "aristocracy" to you?

No, I wasn't addressing the fact that it's a hometown university.

Giving preference to people who's parents went to a school over people who just moved to town or who are from elsewhere is unamerican. It creates a select group based on family lines who are more apt to get something than people outside those family lines. That's aristocracy. Just because A&M isn't Yale doesn't make the merits of the system different.

It's [legacy] just part of the university, and it's a very integral part of what makes A&M, A&M.

And aristocratic traditions were what made Europe Europe for most of the Dark Ages.

Just because something is traditional, and you're personally a beneficiary of that tradition, doesn't make it right.

For one thing, I was in the top 10% of my class, so I was not given any preferential treatment. I got in early because of my grades in school.

You have to have a certain SAT and grade point average to even consider going to A&M. After that, there is different criteria, and being a legacy is part of that criteria.

I think it is perfectly acceptable to put someone that knows all about the university, and loves it at the top of the list.

What criteria would you like to use after grades and SAT?

I might also want to point out that my nephew was not accepted into A&M at first. He had a B average in high school and a higher SAT than I had. Then he decided to join the corps of cadets, and was accepted.

One of my nieces was not accepted to A&M at first, and I don't know why. She had good grades and a much higher SAT than I had. She was put on a wait list, and finally got accepted right before her freshman year was to start. She may have had to go to summer school in order to get accepted.

Being a legacy does not help much at A&M, but it does help if all of the other criteria has been met. Now, there are lots of us that love the university and worked hard to get in. I would imagine that is more the case at A&M than anything else.

I think it is perfectly acceptable to put someone that knows all about the university, and loves it at the top of the list.

Hard to argue with that, but what does this have to do with where your parents went to school? Newcomers can be passionate about A&M too, I imagine.

What criteria would you like to use after grades and SAT?

Oh, I'm a romantic who believes in things like personal essays, a portfolio of work, statements of purpose, and actual conversations with passionate admissions people. I think looking at family background is appropriate in some cases. It was pointed out to me that A&M gives some breaks to people who's parents didn't finish high school, which seems like a noble thing to do.

This is probably an unpopular thing to say, but honestly I'd like favorable treatment for people from poorer economic backgrounds and recent immagrants too. I see it all as part of bringing the historically less fortunite into the great circle of opprtunity, creating a wider base of smart, motivated, connected people who can help the world be a better place. A little romantic, perhaps, but I've seen it work, so...

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.