New Haven — In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning affirmative action and a subsequent lawsuit seeking to force Harvard University to discontinue "legacy admissions" policies that have been called "affirmative action for the rich," Yale University will examine its admissions process this summer.

But at a time when some other education institutions, including Johns Hopkins University and Amherst College, have dropped legacy admissions — which involve giving preference to people whose parents or other relatives graduated from or gave money to a school — Yale officials have made no promises that the university will change its policies.

Yale granted admission to 14 percent of the class of 2025 based at least in part on legacy affiliations, according to university admissions records.

Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart cited a statement from Yale officials last month that came out strongly against the Supreme Court affirmative action decision, but declined to comment on the Harvard lawsuit filed by several civil rights organizations.

"In their June 29 message to the Yale College Community, Deans Lewis and Quinlan said that over the summer, they will 'closely examine all the elements of the university's admissions process under the new legal framework and consider new programs and initiatives,'" Peart wrote in an email.

She was referring to Dean of Yale College Pericles Lewis and Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Jeremiah Quinlan.

According to Statista.com figures, Yale's legacy admissions percentage has hovered mostly between 10 percent and 14 percent since the class of 2012, with a high of 14 percent for the class of 2025 and a low of 8 percent for the class of 2024. According to Statistica, the class of 2026 — those starting their first year of college in fall 2022 — 12 percent of students had a legacy affiliation.

But calls to eliminate legacy-based admissions have come from within the university, itself — including in a recent open letter from the president and vice president of the Yale College Council in the wake of the July 29 Supreme Court Decision.

YCC President Julian Suh-Toma and Vice President Maya Fonkeu, in a letter printed in the Yale Daily News, commended Yale President Peter Salovey for speaking out against the high court overturning affirmative action, adding, "but words must be accompanied by action."

"First, we urge Yale to take this moment to reconsider the role of legacy status in admissions," the open letter reads. "We are struck by the irony of continued consideration of an arbitrary privilege in the face of new restrictions in ensuring diversity on college campuses.

"A system that has, by and large, benefitted Yale's most fortunate communities further augments the inequities that this ruling has exacerbated," Suh-Toma and Fonkeu wrote. "In the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years, both iterations of the Yale College Council Senate voted and resoundingly approved statements condemning the role of legacy in admissions."

While Quinlan did not comment for this story, he submitted written testimony to the state General Assembly, which considered banning legacy admissions in Connecticut last year, urging the legislature to reject it.

"Yale agrees with the central aim of HB 5034 — admitting more low-income and first-generation students and helping them gain the full, life-changing benefits of a college education," Quinlan wrote. "Indeed, I have personally made that a goal since becoming Dean of Undergraduate Admissions in 2013.

"However, Yale disagrees strongly with the approach of HB 5034 because the state should not dictate how colleges and universities make admissions decisions, just as the state should not dictate whom we hire as faculty or what we teach in the curriculum. Moreover, HB 5034 does not address the real challenge — providing the resources to prepare less-advantaged students to attend college and graduate on time."

Yale's approach is "to assemble a group of the most promising students from the most diverse collection of backgrounds," Quinlan said. "Yale's need-based financial aid policies support this goal by making a Yale College education affordable for everyone.

"Yale is one of only six colleges and universities in the country with a need-blind admissions policy (that is, does not consider a family's ability to pay in the selection process) for all applicants," he said, "regardless of citizenship or immigration status, and a commitment to meeting every student's full demonstrated financial need."

A state statute banning legacy admissions "would not address the crucial challenges of preparing students for college, recruiting them, and ensuring that they graduate," Quinland wrote. "Moreover, such a ban would undermine academic freedom by intruding on the autonomy of all colleges and universities in Connecticut, public or private, religious-affiliated or secular, to shape their campus culture and community."

Yale is not the only college in Connecticut that considers legacy connections as part of its admissions process. But it appears to do do on a larger scale than others.

Wesleyan University in Middletown offered admission for fall 2023 to 2,280 of the 14,500 applications it received, according to information on its website. Four percent of the admittees had a Wesleyan parent.

Connecticut College considers legacy as part of its admissions process.

Quinnipiac College and University of Connecticut both are listed in some places online as considering legacy in admissions, but representatives of both have said that's not the case.

While UConn does not do legacy admissions, Vice President for Enrollment Planning and Management Nathan Fuerst said in written testimony against last year's state bill that it would introduce a "slippery slope" of state-level admissions restrictions, "making institutions subject to the prevailing opinion of elected bodies day-to-day."

Legislators in Massachusetts and New York have introduced similar bills.

Still to be seen is whether opinions prior to the overturning of affirmative action hold true in the wake of it.

The Associated Press reported soon after the decision that "in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that strikes down affirmative action in admissions, colleges are coming under renewed pressure to put an end to legacy preferences.

"...Long seen as a perk for the white and wealthy, opponents say it's no longer defensible in a world with no counterbalance in affirmative action," the AP wrote.

The AP reported that President Joe Biden suggested colleges ought to reconsider the practice, saying that legacy preferences "expand privilege instead of opportunity."

Several Congressional Democrats demanded an end to the policy in light of the court's decision, as did some Republicans, including Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who seeks the GOP presidential nomination, the AP reported.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona — who formerly was Connecticut's education commissioner — told the AP that colleges need to "ask themselves the tough questions." Legacy admissions and other types of special treatment "have long denied well-qualified students of all backgrounds a level playing field," he said.

"In the wake of this ruling, they could further tip the scales against students who already have the cards stacked against them," Cardona said in a statement to the AP.

In the Harvard lawsuit, three minority advocacy groups sued the university's governing body, accusing Harvard of giving preferential treatment to children of wealthy donors and alumni.

The lawsuit was filed by Lawyers for Civil Rights on behalf of the Chica Project, African Community Economic Development of New England and the Greater Boston Latino Network. It alleges that students who receive preferential treatment are "overwhelmingly white" and make up as much as 15 percent of admitted students.