Legacy admissions at schools such as Harvard University have been shown to overwhelmingly favor white, wealthy students over students of color from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The bill announced on Wednesday, the Fair College Admissions for Students Act, was introduced by Senator Jeff Merkley in 2022, but did not make it beyond a Senate committee.
Viet Nguyen, executive director of EdMobilizer, a non-profit that has been campaigning against legacy admissions since 2018, joined the lawmakers at Wednesday's press conference.
EdMobilizer is pushing alumni of 30 top colleges and universities to withhold donations from their schools until they end legacy admissions.
Wesleyan University and the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus announced they would stop using legacy admissions in July, following a handful of other U.S. higher education institutions that have ended them in recent years.
Persons:
Jeff Merkley, Merkley, Jamaal Bowman, Chris Van Hollen, Nguyen, Brown, Julia Harte, Donna Bryson, Alistair Bell
Organizations:
Democratic U.S, U.S . Education Department, Harvard, Harvard University, University of North, Fair College, Stanford, Wesleyan University, University of Minnesota's, University of Minnesota's Twin Cities, Thomson
Locations:
U.S, University of North Carolina, University of Minnesota's Twin