Wesleyan University legacy admissions overview:
- Who: Michael S. Roth, the president of Wesleyan University, has announced the school will formally end its legacy admissions practices.
- Why: Roth said the school believed it was important to formally end the practice in the wake of a Supreme Court decision to end the use of affirmative action.
- Where: Wesleyan University is a private university in Middletown, Connecticut.
Wesleyan University has announced it will no longer grant legacy admissions — the preferential admission to student applicants with family members that previously attended the private university in Middletown, Connecticut.
Michael S. Roth, president of Wesleyan, said in a blog post last week that the school would be formally ending its admissions practice for “legacy applicants,” in the wake of the Supreme Court decision to strike down affirmative action.
Roth noted that, while the legacy status of a potential student has “played a negligible role in our admission process for many years,” the university believed it was important to now formally end the practice.
“We still value the ongoing relationships that come from multi-generational Wesleyan attendance, but there will be no ‘bump’ in the selection process,” Roth said. “As has been almost always the case for a long time, family members of alumni will be admitted on their own merits.”
Wesleyan’s announcement follows Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action admission policies
The announcement follows a 6-3 decision by the Supreme Court in June to end affirmative action admissions policies at the University of North Carolina and Harvard University.
Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. said the high court determined that affirmative action admissions policies at the two schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Wesleyan is preceded in its decision to formally end legacy admissions by Amherst College — a fellow member of what is referred to as the “Little Three” — which announced it was doing away with the practice in October 2021, Law360 reports.
Amherst College President Biddy Martin said in a statement at the time that its decision to end legacy admissions was sending a message to prospective students that “its education is within reach for all.”
Wesleyan has also committed to creating an annual scholarship program that will recruit and support a group of undergraduates from Africa, as well as redoubling efforts to recruit veterans to the school, among other things.
The Supreme Court made a number of rulings in the lead up to its summer recess, addressing, among other things, the legality of federal student loan forgiveness and whether an obstruction-of-justice charge can result in immediate deportation.
Do you agree with Wesleyan University’s decision to formally end its legacy admissions practice? Let us know in the comments!
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