SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Diya TV) — California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation Friday that bars legacy and donor preferences in college admissions at private universities across the state, including Stanford University and the University of Southern California. The bill is to take effect in September 2025 and bars universities from giving admissions advantages to applicants connected to alumni or donors. It marked California as the second state to extend this ban to private institutions.

The bill, by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), comes after national talk about fairness in college admissions, the most recent of which was the U.S. Supreme Court decision on using race as a factor in admissions. Advocates of the bill include Newsom, who insist legacy and donor preferences give excessive advantages to the well-off and well-connected families at the detriment of merit-based admissions process.

“In California, everyone should be able to get ahead on their merit, skill and hard work, but the California Dream shouldn’t be accessible just to a lucky few, which is why we’re opening the door to higher education wide enough for everyone, fairly, according to Newsom.

Through legacy admissions, wealthy families have long been able to gain advantages in letting their offspring occupy seats at elite colleges-that often put them ahead of far better qualified applicants. According to the breakdown by Legacy, Stanford and USC are among the highest in the state. USC accepts 14.4% of students with some connection, while Stanford accepts 13.8% of legacy 2022 admits.

Backers of the law believe the new statute would remove these advantages, thus making college admissions more equitable, especially for members of groups that are less represented and have lower incomes. Private colleges did fight the change, at least partially by arguing that legacy preferences amount to just a small percentage of their admissions decisions and promote donor dollars from alumni to their schools. The Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities wrote to Blum this summer protesting the added reporting requirements imposed by the new law​.

 However, it has been said that the new law would make universities comply with the new rules. USC has been quoted already as having said that they are more than ready to change their admissions policy to conform with the law​.