THE LEGACIES DEBATE
told their daughter that what she had
achieved, she had achieved of her own
merit. Her response: “But you never told
me I couldn’t.”
They had not. But the school that she
had loved since pre-kindergarten, the uni-
versity from which her grandmother had
earned a master’s degree, the campus upon
which her parents had met, did tell her
one thing she couldn’t do, when UNC
placed her on the waitlist in January 2003
and officially denied her application for
admission that June.
Albeda Murphy ’ 90
says legacy admission isn’t the only
reason she supports
Carolina financially,
but she believes it
ought to matter
when application
time comes around
for her middle
school son. It’s an
approach to giving
that is representative of the thoughts
of many alumni.
an inherited aristocracy,” said Kahlenberg,
who added that, at selective institutions,
where research published by The Century
Foundation has suggested that attendance
can mean adding more than $300,000 to
one’s income over a lifetime, the practice
disproportionately assists those who are
wealthy and white.
Kahlenberg believes the financial basis
for legacy lacks merit. He cited another
study conducted over a nine-year period
that showed no change to alumni donations for seven schools that dropped their
legacy preference. However, a 2009 paper
by economists at Stanford and Princeton,
completed with information from an
anonymous selective research institution,
did find that families with multigenerational attendees were more likely to give.
Anecdotally, at least, donating does
seem to be on the minds of alumni with
children who could be future Tar Heels.
‘I do it [donate]
because I love
Carolina, but
I do it also
because I feel
that if I’m
constantly
supporting the
University,
I want it
to pay off
on some level.’
Albeda Murphy
’ 90
