Connecticut
Legacy Admission Ban Passes In Maryland, Falters In Connecticut
Maryland passes a ban on a legacy admission preferences, while Connecticut weakens a similar … [+]
Legislation that would ban colleges from giving an advantage to the relatives of alumni has met very different fates in two states recently.
Last month Maryland enacted a legacy admission ban that applies to both public and private colleges. But in Connecticut, the House converted an earlier bill with a similar prohibition into one that would require colleges only to report data about their use of legacy admissions.
Maryland now becomes the third state to eliminate the practice of legacy preferences, following Colorado which passed its ban in 2021 and Virginia, which did so earlier this year.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed HB 4 into law on April 25. It applies to colleges and universities that receive state funds, regardless of whether they are public or private. In addition to prohibiting any admission preference for relatives of an alum, the law, which goes into effect July 1, also bans institutions from giving a similar preference to applicants who are relatives of a donor to the institution.
In Connecticut, a bill that began as a ban against legacy admission preferences was weakened after private institutions such as Yale University and Fairfield University mounted a campaign defending the practice, arguing that the government should not intrude on how colleges and universities establish and apply their admissions standards.
Bowing to those concerns, the Connecticut Senate passed an amended bill this week that mandates colleges either to indicate they don’t consider legacy status in admissions or report various admission/enrollment data, including the percentage of legacy students admitted along with data comparing the academic credentials of legacy admits to those of other students. The bill now moves to the Connecticut House of Representatives for its consideration.
The fairness of legacy preferences has been challenged for years, resulting in several prominent colleges electing to discontinue them. However, the heat has been turned up against the practice ever since last year’s Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina finding race-conscious admissions to be unconstitutional.
That ruling brought renewed scrutiny to the racial implications of legacy advantages extended to applicants by highly selective institutions. For example, the percentage of the freshmen class admitted at several selective colleges via the legacy route exceeds the percentage of entering freshmen who are Black, according to a recent report, prepared by Education Reform Now. At many of these colleges, three-quarters or more of the legacy applicants receiving acceptances are white.
Results like those prompt an obvious question: If colleges are required to practice race-neutral admissions policies, why should they be able to continue admission practices – like legacy preferences – that appear to discriminate against nonwhite students?
Legacy abolitionists will see these latest two legislative developments as one step forward and one step back.
Maryland’s passage of its new law might give some momentum to other states like Minnesota and Massachusetts that are still considering bans. But the outcome in Connecticut is clearly a setback. It represents a compromise that prevents any real change to the status quo, and it may become a strategy adopted in the future by legacy-preferring colleges to weaken or derail statutory bans in other states.
UNCASVILLE, Conn. (WTNH) — Aaliyah Edwards came off the bench to score a game-high 21 points as the Connecticut Sun defeated the Portland Fire, 90-87, during Camp Day on Tuesday morning at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Thousands of kids were in attendance to watch the Sun hold on to a fourth-quarter lead as the Fire attempted to rally. Connecticut led by 10 at halftime and saw its lead cut to one in the final period.
Brittney Griner added 20 points for the Sun, who ended their three-game homestand with a victory. Olivia Nelson-Ododa went 8-for-8 from the foul line en route to 16 points and Leila Lacan chipped in 14.
Carla Leite led the Fire with 18 points.
The Sun visit Phoenix on Friday for the first of two games with the Mercury.
Florida’s tallest flag pole raises new Stars and Stripes on Independence Day
Florida’s tallest free-standing American flagpole now stands 250 feet tall at Bernice Braden Park in Cape Coral
You might have seen Connecticut’s state flag in government buildings and schools and wondered what the meaning was behind its design.
Adopted by the General Assembly in 1897, the Flag of Connecticut features a navy blue background with a white shield. Three grapevines with purple grapes are on the shield and oak leaves and acorns can be found on the shield’s edge.
Below the shield is a banner which features the phrase “Qui Transtulit Sustinet” written in Latin. According to ConnecticutHistory.org, that phrase translates to “He who transplanted still sustains,” which honors the colonists who moved to the state from England.
Per Encyclopedia Britannica, the three grapevines have two competing interpretations: they represent either the three oldest settlements in the state (Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor) or the three colonies that merged to form Connecticut (Connecticut Colony, Saybrook Colony and New Haven Colony).
Why is the Connecticut flag blue?
According to ConnecticutHistory.org, the blue comes from Connecticut’s Civil War military flags. During the Civil War, Connecticut regiments had flags featuring blue backgrounds. ConnecticutHistory.org reports that when the legislature adopted an official flag in 1897, they kept the color that military tradition had already established.
Origins of Connecticut’s state flag
Per ConnecticutHistory.org, Connecticut did not have an official state flag until 1897. The site reports that in 1895, the Anna Warner Bailey Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Groton pushed for an official flag to display in their new meeting room.
Governor Owen Vincent Coffin introduced a bill on May 29, 1895, which ConnecticutHistory.org says caused the legislature to subsequently form a committee. After several designs were submitted, the Connecticut General Assembly adopted the flag in 1897.
Connecticut’s coat of arms, which includes the shield, grapevines and banner featured on the state flag, was not formally standardized until 1931, according to USASymbol.com. The website also says color standards for the flag came in 1956, when the Secretary of the State’s office developed uniform specifications.
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