ITHACA, N.Y. (WHCU) – Legacy admissions are once again under fire at Cornell.

The Student Assembly unanimously approved a resolution on Thursday calling for the end of legacy preferencing in the University’s admissions process. It mirrors a similar resolution passed in 2021.

Data from the U.S. Education Department shows that children of alumni are four times as likely to be approved to elite colleges as students with identical test scores who are not. That figure is larger for students who come from families with larger incomes. The Cornell Daily Sun reports that 14.7% of the Class of 2025 are descendants of Cornell alumni, while just 13.7% of students in the class are black.

Student Assembly President Patrick Kuehl, also an alderperson on the City of Ithaca’s Common Council, prepared the resolution with his counterparts at Columbia, Brown, and Yale.