by Michele Decamp
Technician (North Carolina State U.)
(U-WIRE) RALEIGH, N.C. — I am sure at least a few people who will read this column had parents who attended North Carolina State University during their youth. Those students are considered legacy students because they are continuing their family’s proud tradition of attending NCSU.
There are some perks to having alumni parents. These students probably know their way around the campus. If they live in the area, then they have likely been going to basketball games in Reynolds Coliseum since they were three years old. And it is possible that their acceptance may have been aided by their family’s history with the school.
I am not suggesting that every legacy student at NCSU was admitted because of his or her alumni family. But it can help, just like it can help if you are extremely adept at a particular sport or if you were valedictorian of your high school class. It is an application booster, but it does not guarantee anyone an acceptance. However, some people are starting to wonder if these legacy admissions are racist.
I did a double take when I first heard this theory because while I have always felt that legacy admissions can be frustrating, I never considered race to be an issue. One of my high school classmates applied to an elite private university where both of her parents had attended. When she received her initial information sheet after she turned in her application, it had the amount of money her parents had donated to the school right under her name. Luckily for her, it was a large sum.
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This particular situation frustrates me a little because my former classmate did not have the grades this particular school usually required. However, she did get accepted as an early admission candidate, and there is no doubt in my mind that her parents’ donations played a part in her quick acceptance. If a school is receiving thousands of dollars from their alumni and those same former students want their children to attend the school, are the admissions officers really going to say no?
The problem lies in the fact that the majority of college alumni in the United States are white. Therefore, legacy admissions could be considered affirmative action for Caucasians. Occasionally a less-than-competitive student could beat out another non-legacy student for admission, and it is likely that the student who is accepted is white. CNN reported 11 percent of the University of Virginia’s 2002 acceptances went to legacy students and that “more than 91 percent of them are white.” For public universities, alumni donations can make the difference between being a major force in education to sitting along the sidelines of the university elite. NCSU’s research facilities have greatly benefited from outside donations, some of which have come from alumni.
The fact remains that history is against minorities in regards to legacy admissions because there are many students at NCSU who are the first of their families to go to college. This is true for all races, but the statistics tend to favor whites in regard to the number of people who have graduated or attended a college or university in the past 30 years. At NCSU, we currently have over 18,000 white, non-Hispanic students enrolled and that number dwarfs the 2,300 African Americans, 450 Hispanics and 1,100 Asian students also attending this university. It is likely that race will continue to be a problem in legacy admissions for a few more decades. There is still a need for more diversity in college applicants and admissions.
Some of you may wonder what the problem is, and for me, I feel the real issue is that many of the people who are against affirmative action are for legacy admissions. President Bush was a third-generation Yale graduate, but he made it very clear earlier this year that he does not agree with the University of Michigan’s affirmative action policy. In some ways, affirmative action is absolutely necessary to combat the flow of legacy admissions that may eliminate chances for diversity at a college or university.
I am not suggesting NCSU or any other school eliminate their legacy admissions policies, but I also feel anyone who is against affirmative action needs to realize there are ways for Caucasians to beat out more academically sound candidates as well. Affirmative action looks at what a student can bring to a university in terms of their socioeconomic status and ethnic background just as legacy admissions look to fortify the school’s relationship with families. Both have their purpose, and I think it is important that we realize that affirmative action is not the only factor in admissions that deals with race.
