Private universities in California can no longer consider legacy and donor preferences in the admissions process following a bill that was signed into law Monday.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed Assembly Bill 1780 which prohibits legacy admissions or those from family members of major donors at private and nonprofit institutions. AB 1780, authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), was passed in the legislature following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last summer restricting the use of race in college admissions .
Following the ruling, proponents of AB 1780 pushed for admissions criteria that ensured other factors such as wealth or personal relationships do not give students an unfair advantage in admissions decisions.
AB 1780 aims to ensure that admissions decisions are based solely on merit and to reduce bias in the admissions process at private colleges in California. The state’s public universities have prohibited such considerations from their admissions process since 1998.