New law bans legacy preferences

Children of UVA alumni, who have recently made up as much as 14.7 percent of incoming first-year classes, can no longer enjoy any advantage in the admissions process once a new state law banning legacy admissions takes effect July 1.

In March, Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed bills ending preferential treatment for applicants related to alumni of the state’s public universities. The identical bills had garnered bipartisan support, passing the House of Delegates and State Senate unanimously.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to end race-based admissions last year triggered the bills, said Del. Dan Helmer, a Democrat from Fairfax County, and state Sen. Schuyler T. VanValkenburg, a Democrat from Henrico County, the state lawmakers behind the new law. It also prohibits admissions preferences for applicants related to donors.

“We got zero pushback,” VanValkenburg said. At a time when universities are working to build more diverse student bodies, giving the children of alumni and donors an edge in admissions is “indefensible” and “anti-meritorious,” he said.

Said Helmer: “We think that legacy [admissions preference] … was in fact denying really capable students access to an education that can provide a pathway to the middle class at a real cost for our education system in terms of diminishing diversity.”

The Supreme Court’s race decision didn’t address legacy admissions, but the longtime practice quickly became a target. In a statement after the Supreme Court ruling, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, called legacy admissions part of a system that expands “privilege instead of opportunity.”

After Youngkin signed the bills into law, U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Todd Young, R-Ind., who have proposed a nearly identical federal bill, put out a joint statement applauding the move. Ending legacy and donor admissions preferences nationwide, they said, will “promote upward mobility and fairness in the admissions process.”

Colorado lawmakers had already prohibited legacy-based admissions before the 2023 Supreme Court decision; Virginia is the first state to reject the practice since then. Other states, including Massachusetts, New York, Maryland and Connecticut, are considering similar bills. Some schools also had eliminated legacy as a category for consideration, including Virginia Tech, which announced its decision last July.

In a statement, UVA officials said they were evaluating how the new law will affect the school’s current admissions approach once it takes effect. “In the meantime, as President Jim Ryan and Provost Ian Baucom noted in a message to the community following the Supreme Court decision last year, we will continue to do everything within our legal means to welcome students from a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives so that they can learn from each other and contribute to the vitality of this community,” according to the statement shared by Bethanie Glover, UVA’s deputy spokesperson.