Former Brown President Defends Harvard Legacy Admits

The elites sure are taking center stage in the SFFA v. Harvard case. “Ruth J. Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University and the former president of Brown University, defended Harvard’s practice of giving ‘tips’ — meaning an extra boost — to legacies, students linked to top donors, children of faculty and staff, and both recruited and non-recruited athletes,” Cindy Zhong reported in The Harvard Crimson. “Simmons said alumni of elite universities can have a strong positive impact on their institutions, making it ‘important’ to give an extra nudge to legacy applicants. At Harvard, the legacy admit rate is five times that seen by non-legacies.”

Under cross-examination, she also predicted enrollment would go down without the practice.

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