Legacy Admissions Serve a Useful Purpose
How can newcomers join elite culture if it isn’t maintained? By Readers July 31, 2023 10:20 am ET On campus at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., Feb. 4, 2020. Photo: William Thomas Cain/Getty Images Darcy Stamler (Letters, July 27) asks whether, in light of taxpayer-funded support of private universities, their legacy admissions are “any easier to defend.” The answer is yes, on grounds of history and the need to maintain cultural diversity. Institutions such as Princeton retain at their core an older elite culture, which is a part of the founding heritage of this country, while at the same time creating opportunities for the children of more recent arrivals to partake of this culture and thereby to experience social mobility. (The education also helps.) Legacy admissions help maintain the original line of culture and permi
On campus at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., Feb. 4, 2020.
Photo: William Thomas Cain/Getty Images
Darcy Stamler (Letters, July 27) asks whether, in light of taxpayer-funded support of private universities, their legacy admissions are “any easier to defend.” The answer is yes, on grounds of history and the need to maintain cultural diversity. Institutions such as Princeton retain at their core an older elite culture, which is a part of the founding heritage of this country, while at the same time creating opportunities for the children of more recent arrivals to partake of this culture and thereby to experience social mobility. (The education also helps.)
Legacy admissions help maintain the original line of culture and permit alumni who have benefited from social mobility to pass on their legacy of achievement to their progeny. There is nothing wrong with tax dollars contributing to this worthy project.
Em. Prof. Albion M. Urdank
University of California, Los Angeles
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