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Civil rights advocates sued Harvard University on Monday, challenging the school’s legacy and donor admissions policies as unfair giveaways to “mostly White” students.
Nearly 70% of applications that come from donor families are White, as are nearly 70% of legacy applications, which results in preferential treatment over Asian American, Black and Hispanic applicants.
The lawsuit argued that doing away with those preferences is one way the school could maintain or boost Black and Hispanic enrollment after the Supreme Court last week struck down the school’s race-based affirmative action program as unconstitutional.
“The fact is that, if the Donor and Legacy Preferences did not exist, more students of color would be admitted to Harvard,” said the lawsuit, led by the Chica Project, African Community Economic Development of New England and the Greater Boston Latino Network.
