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Monday, September 13, 2004
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13 September 04
TO: Undergraduate Oligarchs Consortium [for background, see UD, 4/23/04, 5/24/04, and 6/13/04] FROM: Josh SUBJECT: EMERGENCY Meeting Tonight, my place LOTS of static in the air lately, fellow UO's, and whether we like it or not, we need to be prepared to handle it. Today's New York Times has an op-ed piece denouncing legacy admissions and quoting William F. Buckley sounding absolutely awful (when Yale temporarily cut back on legacy admissions a few years ago, Buckley complained that Yale was no longer the "kind of place where your family goes for generations" and had become a place where "the son of an alumnus, who goes to a private preparatory school, now has less chance of getting in than some boy from P.S. 109 somewhere."). The Democratic vice-presidential candidate has long been on record as calling for the abolition of legacy admissions, and lots of other people are making a similar sort of noise... Even more troubling is the fact that some observers are picking up on non-legacy family wealth admissions. Here is the Wall Street Journal: “Most universities acknowledge favoring children of alumni who support their alma mater. But to attract prospective donors, colleges are also bending admissions standards to make space for children from rich or influential families that lack longstanding ties to the institutions. Through referrals and word-of-mouth, schools identify applicants from well-to-do families. Then, as soon as these students enroll, universities start soliciting gifts from their parents." Finally, and most troubling of all, some of us have seen evidence even here at Harvard of nascent rebellion against legacies. Gwyneth spotted the following lame ditty on the back of a ladies room door in Widener: Higglety pigglety Legacy legatee Got into Harvard Behind his old man. Higglety pigglety Legacy's committee Threw both his SAT's In the trash can. "Higglety pigglety! All's relativity! This family's contributed Since time began!" So higglety pigglety A 550 SAT Got into Harvard Behind his old man. And higglety pigglety Legacy's destiny Will ever be guided By this divine plan. Put aside the excruciating badness of these lines and focus instead upon the fact of their having been written at this place at this time. Something bad is taking shape here, and we need to talk about it and devise a response. See you at 8 this evening. |