[chibifry]

An article I found from way back in 2004.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/06/...gacy/index.html

Bush opposes 'legacy' college admissions
Point raised at conference of minority journalists
Friday, August 6, 2004 Posted: 1:20 PM EDT (1720 GMT)


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush said Friday he opposes the use of a family history at colleges or universities as a factor in determining admission.

Bush stated his position to what's known as "legacy" in response to a question during a Washington forum for minority journalists called Unity 2004.

He was asked, "Colleges should get rid of legacy?"

Bush responded, "Well I think so, yes. I think it ought to be based upon merit."

Under legacy programs, applicants are given an advantage if their parents or grandparents attended the school. Bush, a third-generation graduate of Yale University, joked about his own legacy.

"Well, in my case, I had to knock on a lot of doors to follow the old man's footsteps," he said to laughter.

Bush's remark came as he was being grilled about his opposition to affirmative action programs that consider race as a factor for admission, particularly through quota systems.

Bush said admission should be based "on merit."

Bush has not previously expressed opposition to the use of family lineage at a university to help admission.

In a lengthy exchange with the journalist, Bush said there should be no "special exception for certain people."

He expressed his support for diversity.

Affirmative action
While Bush clearly stated his opposition to quotas, he also suggested that he was not opposed to affirmative action.

But he didn't explain what the distinction was.

"I support college affirmatively taking action to get more minorities in their school," Bush said as the audience laughed.

Prominent civil rights leaders have also called for an end to the legacy practice, as have some Democrats -- including vice presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards.

In a 2002 speech on education, Edwards called it "a birthright out of 18th-century British aristocracy, not 21st-century American democracy."

Following Bush's remark on Friday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson told CNN it's a positive step "if it's a policy, not just a speech."

"'Legacy points' are very widespread for children of wealth," he said, arguing that underprivileged children have their opportunities limited by a legacy system.

[HURRRRR]

Since Asians aren't in the category of "minorities", affirmative action sucks and admissions should be based on merit. Maybe we should give chance to the minorities to better their economic situations, but then the minorities all drop out in disproportionate numbers.

And Bush is retarded. He opposes legacies my butt. It is obviously only a speech where he doesn't even know what he's talkin about.

[josebiwasabi]

i hate legacies. there were so many qualified people who got rejected from some top-tier schools that didn't get in... and i know some not-so-stellar people that got in because they have a ton of people from their family that went to that school.

[joogrlpekaun]

i have to admit that whether Bush is a hypocritical idiot or not (and he is), i personally also dislike legacy admissions. they make some sense for the universities, but it's still unfair. Asians don't need special treatment like affirmative action (if anyone should even have it), though, looking at the percentages of Asians in the top high schools and universities in the nation.

[josebiwasabi]

moreover, it's not merely the fact that asians don't receive the benefits from affirmative action, but rather they are actually PENALIZED solely due to our race.

a study involving many top universities, such as UC Berkeley before they got rid of AA) and Harvard, found that for SAT scores:
white: 0
asian: -50
black: +100something
native american: +100something

by the way, it's not just asians who get penalized. indians and jews are also considered 'model minority' groups, and they are at a disadvantage, as well.

[kuku]

My friend has semi decent grades. Both his parents went to Brown.
It's obvious where he is going.

[kOoHII]

hmm...which is why the "presitigous" ivy leagues aren't as prestigious as they make it out to be...

[chibifry]

moreover, it's not merely the fact that asians don't receive the benefits from affirmative action, but rather they are actually PENALIZED solely due to our race.

a study involving many top universities, such as UC Berkeley before they got rid of AA) and Harvard, found that for SAT scores:
white: 0
asian: -50
black: +100something
native american: +100something

by the way, it's not just asians who get penalized. indians and jews are also considered 'model minority' groups, and they are at a disadvantage, as well.

yea I saw that study too. And plus I recently read that article about males being more in demand and females having a higher chance of being rejected.. what is an Asian female to do? ::sigh::

[hannahch0ng]

This guy at my school got into Stanford because both his parents are employed there. There are two other guys who got rejected even though they had wayyy better qualifications than the guy who got accepted. What the freak?

Also, yeah affirmative action sucks. They cannot PENALIZE you for being smarter than everyone else. I'm not trying to be arrogant, but please. Colleges are soo biased.

yea I saw that study too. And plus I recently read that article about males being more in demand and females having a higher chance of being rejected.. what is an Asian female to do? ::sigh::

I thought that you were worse off being a MALE Asian.

[josebiwasabi]

the worst possible thing to be is an asian male going into engineering.

the second worst is an asian male going into medicine <-- me. sigh.

[josebiwasabi]

did you want me to specify eastern asian? you know what i meant.

[Tamago86]

It's not really hard to see why affirmative action has started to target asians as well, one merely has to take a stroll around UCLA..aka University of Caucasians Lost among Asians

seriously though AA = reverse discrimination...At least when asians and whites get into college (without a legacy) they have the benefit of knowing they earned that admission without a crutch based on their race. However despite asians getting -50 and blacks getting +100 there are a hell of alot more asians than blacks on most campuses I've been to, which is odd because blacks make up a larger percent of the population than asians do in America.

And I would imagine native americans would have the edge over blacks AA-wise..I have a part native american friend and he keeps getting mails from places like Harvard talking about their 'strong ties to native american culture' and stuff like that...Plus the government pays for the college tuition of native americans

[erure]

i'm lazy so i only read like the first 2 sentences but didn't bush himself get in with legacy rather than merit? i heard he partied real hard during college times... i bet his dad ordered colleges to let his son in or something -___-