Harvard's admissions break for children of alumni and donors "discriminates against students of color by giving an unfair boost" to applicants who are mostly white, charges a civil rights complaint filed Monday.
"Why are we rewarding children for privileges and advantages accrued by prior generations?" said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, the group's executive director. "Your family's last name and the size of your bank account are not a measure of merit, and should have no bearing on the college admissions process."
The short answer is: Money. Alumni and donor children are more likely to accept the admissions offer, require little financial aid, graduate and donate money to the alma mater.
I think any college that talks about its commitment to "diversity" and "equity" -- which is pretty much all of them -- has got to drop legacy/donor admissions.
Both conservative Justice Neil M. Gorsuch and liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized Harvard's preferences for advantaged applicants, report Rahem D. Hamid and Thomas J. Mete in the Harvard Crimson. Ending legacy admissions, which “undoubtedly benefit white and wealthy applicants the most,” and increasing financial aid would increase diversity without racial preferences, Gorsuch wrote in a concurring opinion.
President Biden said he'll tell the Department of Education to study how "practices like legacy admissions … expand privilege instead of opportunity."
"The department could start by examining how politically connected families like the Bidens get their children into Ivy League schools," write Joseph Simonson and Andrew Kerr on Washington Free Beacon.
In 2018, Hunter Biden's daughter Maisy applied for early admissions at the University of Pennsylvania, texts and emails from his laptop show. She was rejected, apparently because she'd done poorly in 11th grade at her elite private school, but had a shot at regular admissions.
Her grandfather, Joe Biden, called Penn's president, Amy Gutmann, and had a "great talk," he texted on Dec. 15. "Maisy still in the game for regular acceptance. But must do well in class this period. It's real," Joe Biden wrote. "We should talk about tutors etc starting tomorrow."
The next day, Hunter Biden told his daughter the news:"Bottom line is that Guttman [sic] made clear that in order for her to explain the 11th grade you had to show improvement in 12th," Hunter wrote. He suggested she have her lacrosse coach talk to Penn's lacrosse coach.
In March 2019, Joe Biden told Hunter that he asked the university's dean of admissions about Maisy's application, and that Gutmann would call him directly to let him know whether Maisy was accepted.
Maisy Biden got in. "Pop" Biden attended her graduation in May.
When the University of Pennsylvania launched the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy & Global Engagement in 2018, Gutmann called Biden “one of the greatest statesmen of our times.”
Penn received more than $1 billion in foreign funding after launching the think tank, "with money pouring in from Chinese officials, the Saudi Arabian government, pharmaceutical companies seeking U.S. assistance, and business magnates facing investigations for tax fraud and corruption," reported Alana Goodman in the Free Beacon. The university paid Joe Biden more than $900,000 from 2017 through April 2019, though he taught no regular classes, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Biden named Amy Gutmann ambassador to Germany in 2022.
President Bill Clinton called the dean of Yale Law School, Guido Calabresi, in 1993 to ask him to admit Hunter Biden, reported Daniel Golden in the Chronicle of Higher education. The younger Biden was rejected, but Calabresi met with him and encouraged him to go to another law school and reapply to Yale as a transfer student. "After a year at Georgetown’s law school, Hunter was admitted to Yale in the summer of 1994, soon after Calabresi stepped down as dean."