8
TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2004
Study: College access uneven
Schools failing to
close income gap
BY DORA P. GONZALEZ
STAFF WRITER
The Higher Education Act
intended to close the gap between
low income and high income stu
dents in higher education institu
tions is not working as it should
be, according to recent findings.
The most recent publication of
the Century Foundation, a think
tank that studies economic
inequality, shows the gap is as large
as it was when the act was first
passed in 1965. The act is set for
renewal this year by the U.S.
Congress.
Lack of financial aid, a poor K
-12 education and the fact that uni
versities don’t seek economic
diversity are the three main rea
sons low-income or working-class
students do not attend college, said
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Richard Kahlenberg, senior fellow
at the Century Foundation and
editor of the book, America’s
Untapped Resource: Low-Income
Students in Higher Education.
Kahlenberg said the lack of
financial aid and information
about available aid makes many
students afraid to apply for college.
But Steve Brooks, executive
director of the North Carolina
State Education Assistance
Authority, said there is state aid for
low-income families.
“It’s not that people get turned
down for aid,” he said. “Unless a
student applies for financial aid,
there is no way of knowing what
their income is.”
But nationwide, financial aid
programs are underfunded and
don’t cover everything students
need, Kahlenberg said, especially
noting the Pell Grant. For the
2002-03 academic year, the max
imum amount a student could
receive from the federally funded
Pell Grant was $4,000.
On top of this, Kahlenberg said,
higher education institutions do
not seek economic diversity in the
same way they have promoted
racial and ethnic diversity.
Kahlenberg’s book states that
13.2 percent of UNC students
receive the Pell Grant. If the school
wants to be as economically diverse
as the national population, the book
states, 40 percent of its students
should be receiving the grant.
Damon Ford, spokesman for
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools,
said that low income students
sometimes choose not to pursue
higher education and that it is not
necessarily because of a lack of
information or financial aid.
“Sometimes students have a
dream that doesn’t require for
them to go to college.”
Brooks also said low-income
students often do not enroll at
UNC because they “don’t see
themselves going to college.”
Contact the State & National
Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
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Naurs
Schools re-evaluating
legacy admission plans
Texas A&M, UGa. abolish the policy
BY DAN PIERGALLINI
STAFF WRITER
Children of university alumni
are seeing their application advan
tage disappear as institutions such
as Texas A&M University and the
University of Georgia abolish their
legacy policies in efforts to make
admissions processes more equal.
The practice has come under the
scrutiny of Democratic presidential
candidate John Edwards, a U.S.
senator from North Carolina, mak
ing it a platform issue for the 2004
election. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-
Mass., also introduced legislation
that would require universities to
release detailed statistics about
people who are admitted due in
part to legacy policies.
“In an admissions process based
on individual merit and potential
contribution to the university com
munity, prior affiliation with Texas
A&M should not be a criterion,”
stated Robert Gates, president of
Texas A&M, in a press release.
Although policies vary, legacy
admission practices generally give
an advantage to those whose rela
tives have attended the university.
Gates added that the “solidity of
the Aggie family... (is) not the result
of four out of 100 (legacy) points on
an admissions evaluation.”
He added that since the pro
gram’s inception in 1989, legacy
played a smaller part in Texas
A&M’s admission process than
most people, both inside and out
side the university, thought it did.
The University of Georgia also
stopped using legacy status as an
admission factor in 2002 because
of its relative unimportance and
perceived unfairness, said Tom
Jackson, UGa. associate vice pres
ident for public affairs.
UGa. stopped using legacy sta
tus when Georgia courts ruled that
it could not use race as an admis
sion factor. “(UGa.) has only been
integrated 40 years and has been
around for 200, so there are a lot
more white legacies than there are
minorities,” Jackson said.
UNC has not considered drop
ping legacy consideration in admis-
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sions and also considers race and
other factors, said Barbara Polk, the
University’s senior associate direc
tor of undergraduate admissions.
Legacy admissions are more of a
factor for nonresidents than for
N.C. applicants, Polk said. “Among
North Carolina residents, legacy
ties can be considered only in a
tiebreaking situation,” she said.
But out-of-state students com
pete with other children of alum
ni for 80 spots set aside specifical
ly for nonresident legacy students.
According to statistics from
UNC’s Office of Undergraduate
Admissions, nonlegacy out-of-state
applicants for freshmen admission
last fall were accepted at a rate of 18
percent. Nonresident legacy appli
cants were accepted at almost dou
ble that rate 35.5 percent.
Stephen Farmer, senior associate
director for undergraduate admis
sions, said that many applicants
would have been competitive with
out their legacy status hut that some
legacy applicants “benefit from the
policy of setting aside spots” for
legacy students, adding that they
were still academically qualified.
In-state legacy applicants at
UNC are accepted at a rate of 69
percent, 9-7 percentage points
higher than the acceptance rate of
nonlegacies.
Contact the State & National
Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.