Len’s Letter #6 Make the Ivy League diverse.

Fantasy

This may be a fantasy, but it is not trivial.

Colleges and universities change leagues. They want more viewers for football games. They want more money.

The Atlantic Coast Conference now includes a bunch of new schools:

Boston College       New

Syracuse                  New

Louisville                 New

Notre Dame            New (Not a member for football)

Pittsburgh               New

Virginia Tech          New

The Big 12 Conference has 10 members.

Nebraska                  left for the Big 10

Colorado                   left for the Pac 12

Missouri                    left for the SEC

Texas A & M             left for the SEC

TCU                            New

West Virginia           New

The Big 10 Conference has 14 members

Maryland                   New

Penn State                 New (fairly new)

Rutgers                      New

Nebraska                  New

Where do NCAA football champions come from? The SEC. The ACC. Where do Presidents come from? From the Ivy League, the military academies, occasionally other schools or no school.

2016:    Penn v. Wellesley (Yale Law School)

2012      Columbia (Harvard Law) v. Brigham Young (Harvard Law and MBA)

2008      Columbia (Harvard Law) v. US Naval Academy

2004      Yale v. Yale

2000      Yale v. Harvard

1996      Washburn v. Georgetown (Yale Law School)

1992      Yale v. Georgetown (Yale Law School)

1988      Yale v. Harvard

1984      Eureka v Minnesota

1980      Eureka v US Naval Academy

1976       US Naval Academy v. Michigan (Yale Law School)

1972      Dakota Wesleyan v. Whittier (Duke Law School)

1968      Minnesota v Whittier (Duke Law School)

1964      Texas State v. No College Degree

1960      Harvard v Whittier (Duke Law School)

Leagues are not immutable. Would expanding the Ivy League make a difference in national leadership? Would it ratify some changes that have already occurred?

Getting into an Ivy League school is not the only route to success. Nor is it the only route to a Presidential nomination. It is an important route. Expanding the Ivy League to include Catholic schools, to include historically black colleges or universities, to include a Jewish oriented school, to include predominantly white schools in the southeast could ratify some changes in leadership that have already occurred in the United States. Expansion could also create new possibilities for leadership.

The schools in the Ivy League have sought internal diversity. Through legacy admissions, they moderate diversity. Through other admissions policies, they seek diversity. These schools are both a gateway to new members of the elite and a guardian of the existing elite. Not an easy task. Expanding the Ivy League might make it easier to be both a gateway and a guardian.

Ivy League schools have some things in common – or mostly in common

• Most have an undergraduate student body between 5,000 and 10,000.
• They focus on Arts and Sciences
• They focus on academic excellence.
• Admission is competitive
• The schools have money. Some have an enormous amount of money
• Most started out training clergy.
• None have a religious affiliation now
• All but one were founded before the American revolution
• They are part of a sports league that does not award athletic scholarships.
• They are all in the northeast. The school that is farthest South is in New Jersey
• This suggestion retains an eastern orientation.

Look South. Look at schools with a religious affiliation. Look at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Look at schools in different kinds of cities. Look at schools that are similar in size and academic quality and academic approach. Look at schools that might approach athletics in a way that is similar to the Ivy League. Keep an eastern focus

Below there are a few schools the Ivy League might look at. Schools that might look at an expanded Ivy League:

• Six are in the Northeast – where the Ivy League already is and may not need more schools unless they are distinctive in some other way.
• Three are Roman Catholic schools, two of them in the Northeast
• One is a secular Jewish school
• Seven are in the Southeast – a geographic area for expansion
• Four are Historically Black Colleges or Universities
• One has a Methodist affiliation.
• Three are predominantly white schools of which the most northern is in Maryland
• Two have endowments that resemble the least wealthy Ivy League schools. The others’ endowments are smaller.
• One was founded before the American Revolution, another shortly after. The others were founded in the nineteenth or even the twentieth century.
• Two are single sex schools; one male and one female — both in Atlanta.

Pick eight and double the Ivy League. Make it diverse.’

This may be fantasy, but it is not trivial. There would be details if it were taken seriously. There would be financial commitments. There would be non-financial commitments

Could this idea start a conversation?

*In the mid-1960s, the April 1 (April Fools Day) edition of the student newspaper “reported” that Brandeis had been admitted into the Ivy League.  There was a condition.  Buildings had to be renamed so they were less Jewish and more American.  Not a problem.  Building donors had agreed to change their names to match the new building names.  A joke, of course.  Also a commentary on how Ivy League diversity is a gateway for newcomers to the elite and guardians of the existing elite. 

…

…Typical Len’s Notes support individual candidates.  A series of Notes watched the results of special elections in 2017 and 2018 to see signs of what might happen in the midterms.  Democrats did better than they had in the past in Congressional elections, even if they lost. That seemed to be and was a positive sign for the upcoming election.  ‘

……Now we are looking toward 2020.  We have a special election result that can be compared to the past.  Jennifer Boysko was elected to the Virginia State Senate.  She was replacing Jennifer Wexton who had been elected to Congress.  VA SD33 has been Democratic for a while.  Mark Herring, now the VA AG, was elected to that seat in 2011 by 8 points.  Jennifer Wexton replaced him in a special election in 2014, winning by 15 points.  She won the General Election in 2015 by 14 points.  Jennifer Boysko’s victory in the 2018 special election was by 40 points.  70 — 30.