Federal Civil Rights Complaint Challenges Harvard’s Legacy Admissions

Federal Civil Rights Complaint Challenges Harvard’s Practice Of Giving Preferential Treatment In Admissions To Children of Wealthy Donors and Alumni 

Preferences Go Overwhelmingly To White Applicants And Systematically Disadvantage Applicants Of Color 

The Chica Project, the African Community Economic Development of New England (ACEDONE), and the Greater Boston Latino Network (GBLN) filed a federal civil rights complaint against Harvard College, challenging its discriminatory practice of giving preferential treatment in the admissions process to applicants with familial ties to wealthy donors and alumni (“legacy applicants”). The complaint, alleging widespread violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, was filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) by Lawyers for Civil Rights. 

The complaint comes on the heels of last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limited the ability to consider race in college admissions, and argues that it is even more imperative now to eliminate policies that systematically disadvantage students of color. 

As the complaint outlines, nearly 70% of Harvard’s donor-related and legacy applicants are white, and they receive a substantial boost based on their status. Donor-related applicants are nearly 7 times more likely to be admitted than non-donor-related applicants, and legacies are nearly 6 times more likely to be admitted. 

For the Class of 2019, about 28% of the class were legacies with a parent or other relative who went to Harvard. Qualified and highly deserving applicants of color are harmed as a result, as admissions slots are given instead to the overwhelmingly white applicants who benefit from Harvard’s legacy and donor preferences. 

Even worse, this preferential treatment has nothing to do with an applicant’s merit. Instead, it is an unfair and unearned benefit that is conferred solely based on the family that the applicant is born into. This custom, pattern, and practice is exclusionary and discriminatory. It severely disadvantages and harms applicants of color. 

The complaint notes that in recent years numerous colleges and universities have recognized the unfairness of such preferences and have abandoned them, including all higher education institutions in Colorado; the University of California; Johns Hopkins University; and Amherst College.

The civil rights complaint calls on the DOE to launch a federal investigation, under Title VI and its implementing regulations, into Harvard’s practices surrounding legacy and donor preferences. The complaint urges the DOE to declare these practices illegal and to order Harvard to cease legacy and donor preference practices if the university wishes to continue receiving federal funds. 

“Harvard’s practice of giving a leg-up to the children of wealthy donors and alumni – who have done nothing to deserve it – must end. This preferential treatment overwhelmingly goes to white applicants and harms efforts to diversify. Particularly in light of last week’s decision from the Supreme Court, it is imperative that the federal government act now to eliminate this unfair barrier that systematically disadvantages students of color,” said Michael Kippins, Litigation Fellow at LCR.

“There’s no birthright to Harvard. As the Supreme Court recently noted, ‘eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.’ There should be no way to identify who your parents are in the college application process. Why are we rewarding children for privileges and advantages accrued by prior generations? Your family’s last name and the size of your bank account are not a measure of merit, and should have no bearing on the college admissions process,” said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, Executive Director of LCR.

Click here to download the complaint: Federal-Civil-Rights-Complaint-Against-Harvard.pdf (lawyersforcivilrights.org)

Queen Latifah, Robert F. Smith among W.E.B. Du Bois Medal recipients

Entertainer Queen Latifah and Robert F. Smith the entrepreneur who announced that he would pay the college loans of more than 400 Morehouse College students who graduated in May are among W.E.B. Du Bois Medal recipients. The Du Bois Medal celebrates black excellence and opportunity.

The Du Bois medal is the highest honor Harvard gives to scholars, artists, writers, journalists, philanthropists, and public servants for their contributions to African and African American history and culture. It is awarded by the African and African American Studies Department, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary at Harvard.

“Understand that there will be times when you will have to stand alone. There will be no one else that will believe in your dream,” Queen Latifah, hip-hop artist, actress, and medal recipient, told a packed audience Tuesday evening at Sanders Theatre. “There are plenty of people who told us we will never be where we are today … but we don’t believe those people. You have to be strong and be courageous and just know that if you believe in it, it’s going to happen. Don’t give up. Do not quit. Fight for it.”

In a moving speech, Smith — the founder, chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a firm that manages equity capital worth upwards of $50 billion — recalled how his upbringing and community inspired him to succeed for those who didn’t have the opportunities he did, and to open doors to success for others. Of his $34 million gift to the 2019 graduates of Morehouse, he said, “To me that’s my job. It is to liberate the human spirit.”

Besides Smith and Latifah, this year’s honorees included Elizabeth Alexander, a renowned poet, president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and former fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; Lonnie Bunch III, the head of the Smithsonian Institution; Rita Dove, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former U.S. poet laureate; Sheila C. Johnson, philanthropist and co-founder of Black Entertainment Television; and Kerry James Marshall, an award-winning artist.

Past winners include such luminaries as poet Toni Morrison, boxer Muhammad Ali, children’s rights activist Marian Wright Edelman, Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, comedian Dave Chappelle, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, writer Maya Angelou, politician and civil rights leader John Lewis, opera star Jessye Norman, rapper Nasir “Nas” Jones, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and entertainer and media executive Oprah Winfrey.

[SOURCE: HARVARD GAZZETTE]

U.S. charges Arizona man with threatening Harvard's black commencement

An Arizona man who made racially-charged online threats to shoot students attending Harvard's first black commencement ceremony last year and to bomb the university has been arrested, federal authorities said on Saturday.

A federal grand jury in Boston indicted Nicholas Zuckerman, 24, on two counts of "transmitting in interstate and foreign commerce a threat to injure the person of another." Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Zuckerman was arrested on Friday and will be brought to U.S. District Court in Boston. A federal court in Arizona will appoint a lawyer for him on Monday, federal prosecutors in Massachusetts said. They did not say where Zuckerman was being held or if he had any connection to Harvard.

After Harvard announced it would hold a special commencement ceremony on May 23, 2017, to celebrate the accomplishments of black students graduating from the university, Zuckerman made two threatening posts on the university's Instagram account, the indictment said.

In his first posting, the indictment alleged, Zuckerman commented on May 11 under an image of three young black women: "If the blacks only ceremony happens, then I encourage violence and death at it. I'm thinking two automatics with extendo clips." He also used a racial epithet.

He followed two days later with a comment under an American flag he had posted on the university's account saying, "#bombharvard and end their pro-black agenda," the indictment said.

Organizers of last year's black commencement said it was open to all graduating students, as was Harvard's official commencement, which was held two days later. The university held its second black commencement last month on May 22.

[SOURCE: YAHOO NEWS]