Americans’ confidence in higher education has fallen to 36 percent, according to a new Gallup survey conducted June 1 to 22. This is down from 48 percent in 2018 and 57 percent in 2015 who had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education.
Higher education was rated along with 16 other institutions. Despite confidence being down, higher ed ranked fourth this year and in 2018 among these institutions, with small business, the military and the police in the top three spots.
The largest drops in confidence came from Republicans, those with no college degree and those 55 and older. Gallup’s poll did not ask for reasons behind the recent drop in confidence.
Legacy admissions
After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the use of affirmative action in higher education admissions, some have targeted getting rid of legacy admissions, which they call affirmative actions for the white, affluent students.
This week, Wesleyan University in Connecticut became the latest school to announce it was ending legacy admissions, which give a preference to students whose family members are alumni. Carnegie Mellon University, Amherst College in Massachusetts, and Johns Hopkins University in Maryland also have eliminated legacy admissions over the past few years.
And a Civil Rights complaint was recently filed against Harvard University over its legacy admissions policy.
At Pitt, legacy is not a preference in admissions for undergraduates at the Oakland campus, a Pitt spokesman said. It has never been a primary or “plus” factor in Pitt undergraduate admissions, although it was listed as “considered” on the University’s Common Data Set until recently.
Alumni/AE relation are now listed a “not considered” and race/ethnicity also will be marked “not considered” starting next year because of the affirmative action ruling.
— Susan Jones
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