Editor:

I could not agree more with the statements made by Jim Bergstedt in the Aug. 8 edition of The Daily Utah Chronicle. Using race as a factor in school admissions is an outdated and racist policy.

However, it is troubling to me that affirmative action has gained so much attention while other poor university admissions policies are overlooked. At many of the top-tier universities in the United States, simply being the offspring of an alumni can grant the most unqualified of students a ticket in.

At Columbia, Harvard, Yale and Georgetown, among many others, students secure this “legacy” status simply through blood. Ignoring merit and encouraging the perpetuation of the traditionally white student bodies of past generations, all this policy accomplishes is to decrease the diversity of the student body that the affirmative action policies implemented by these schools intended to fix.

These schools hold themselves as the most esteemed in the country, yet use poor admissions policies that compromise the integrity of their student bodies. Admission should be based on merit and learning opportunities that were available to the student, not on legacy and race. One can hardly argue that heritage, whether it is in the form of skin color or family name, directly influences the qualification of one student versus another in consideration for admission to an educational institution.

Nick Macey

Freshman

Accounting