A California assemblymember is taking another crack at restricting state funding for universities that use legacy admissions, a practice of giving preferential treatment to relatives of alumni or donors.
Assembly Bill 1780 would prohibit Cal Grants from being given to universities that use the practice but would not ban it. The state’s public universities, the University of California and California State University, do not consider legacy status in admissions, but private universities such as Stanford University and Santa Clara University do consider such relationships, though not as a sole criteria.
Cal Grants are the state’s main form of student financial aid and often go directly to a university to pay for tuition. Unlike loans, the grants do not have to be repaid. In the 2022-23 school year, undergraduates at Stanford University received a combined roughly $3.2 million, according to the university’s website.
A spokesperson for Stanford said the university had not reviewed the bill or taken a position.
Second attempt to close ‘back, side’ doors
Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, announced the bill on Wednesday, but it was introduced in early January and was first heard in committee on Feb. 3. The bill is a repeat of his attempt to pass the same legislation in 2019 as Assembly Bill 697.
Although that bill did not ultimately pass with the Cal Grant restrictions, a version was signed into law that requires private universities to report data on legacy admissions to the state.
Ting said the new bill would address what he called a discrepancy in a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2023 that ruled that universities cannot consider race as a factor in admissions. The ruling did not address legacy admissions, which Ting said disproportionately favor wealthier families.
“They have a back door, they have a side door, they have an express lane into our most elite institutions. I’m very, very concerned about that,” Ting said in a press conference announcing the bill.
Ting pointed to a study from a group of Harvard economists that found that universities that use legacy admissions admit students with parents making over $600,000 a year at twice the rate of those making less, despite comparable SAT and ACT scores.
He said the state should not use Cal Grant money to effectively subsidize the practice of legacy admissions.
They have a back door, they have a side door, they have an express lane into our most elite institutions. I’m very, very concerned about that.
Assemblymember Phil Ting
About 13.8 percent of Stanford University’s newly admitted students in 2023 had ties to an alum or donor, according to Ting’s office.
Similarly, about 13.1 percent of newly admitted students at Santa Clara University had ties to an alum or donor.
Eva Blanco Masias, vice president for enrollment management at Santa Clara University, said in an email that the university does not have a written legacy admissions policy and that several factors go into admissions decisions.
“All Santa Clara University students who are admitted are qualified, and legacy status alone is never determinative of a student’s admission. Factors such as academic quality, leadership, preparedness, and resilience in the face of challenges are the key admissions considerations for students who apply.”
The bill is supported by the nonprofit organization the Campaign for College Opportunity, which advocates for greater access to higher education for all students.
Admissions inequities
Sara Arce, the nonprofit’s senior vice president for policy and advocacy, said the bill could also address a legacy of admissions policies that favored white students in the past.
“The vast majority of California’s college age population are first generation, Black, Latinx, Asian American, Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander students who do not benefit from legacy admissions but have the most to gain from a college education,” Arce said.
She said that legacy admissions perpetuate racism of past decades when colleges and universities were closed to those students.
The bill will have further hearings in the spring, according to Ting.