The legislation, known as Assembly Bill 1780, authored by California Assemblyman Jose Medina and spurred by a UCLAقد pupil sit-in Threatens booted up by the group Students 4 Isaiah, has outlawed legacy and donor preferences in admission procedures at independent, nonprofit institutions of further education throughout the state. “Every Californian, especially women and other underprivileged groups, should be able to rise to the top of his/her game through merit, skills and work,” Newsom said. While the aspiration known as the Californian Dream should not include an opportunity for a decent job for a limited number of people only, we are swinging the gates of access to higher education wide open – fairly.

This legislation means that California joins Illinois, Maryland, Colorado and Virginia as states where legislation prohibits colleges from granting preferences to relatives of alumni or donors. The bill has been processed with a number of amendments before it passed in the Assembly by Assemblymember Phil Ting. Originally, it sought to cut state funding through Cal Grant to colleges employing legacy preferences but this penalty was done away with.

Institutions managing an institution violating the new law have required to provide annual reports to the Legislature and the California Department of Justice on how they intend to come into compliance with the ban. Should a college have violated the ban, it will have to report the admission rates of students who benefitted from legacy or donor ‘bumps’ against the aggregate rates for all students. Additional data to be incorporated in the report will be,

the racial, geographical and financial—or the lack of it—characteristics of the students that have been admitted and whether or not they are athletes.

It is one of the steps to make the access to the colleges in California free and equal for all residents, therefore to create the opportunity for all people to get education at college.