Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bill banning considering legacy in public university admissions, making the commonwealth the second state to end admission advantages through family connections.
Such ties to alumni and donors cannot be taken into consideration for application under the terms of House Bill 48, which Youngkin, a Republican, signed Friday.
That family connections will no longer be of any help to applicants to such prestigious institutions as the University of Virginia and the College of William & Mary.
The University of Virginia and William & Mary were ranked the Nos. 24 and 53 national universities in the most recent ratings by U.S. News & World Report. No. 47 Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, announced last year that it had removed legacy from its admissions calculations.
Colorado adopted a legacy ban in 2021.
Proponents of affirmative action have long taken aim at legacy — but particularly so in recent months after the conservative U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down policies at the University of North Carolina and Harvard that had included race as a consideration for admission.
Affirmative action supporters argue that legacy boosts applicants who were born into privilege. Rep Barbara Lee, D-Calif., has bluntly said that "affirmative action still exists for white people. It’s called legacy admissions."
Virginia state Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, a Democrat, hailed the state's "bipartisan" agreement "to ban legacy preferences in college admissions."
"We were the first state post-Students for Fair Admissions to do so," he said a in a statement Monday, referring to the Supreme Court case.
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he hopes the legacy ban becomes a national movement.
"Proud to see Virginia be a leader in banning legacy admissions at colleges and universities," Kaine said in statement. "Now Congress should pass my bipartisan bill to do the same nationwide."
