(U-WIRE) BLACKSBURG, Va. – In an effort to even the odds ofcollege admissions, Senate Democrats have proposed a bill requiringcolleges to report the race and economic status of all studentsaccepted for early decision and as legacies.

“With a lot of schools, there is a substantial differencewith legacies,” said Karen Torgersen, director of admissions.”But at Virginia Tech, that’s not true.”

Sen. John Edwards, a Democratic presidential candidate, told theWall Street Journal the disclosure of this information will revealthe racial and social class breakdown of accepted students. He saidit will encourage colleges to balance out any tendencies to favorupper class white males.

“When we look at our freshman class, while we do haveminorities that are legacies, there are much less and that’sbecause of what the university looked like 20 or 30 yearsago,” Torgersen said.

Legacies at Tech are decided based on parents, grandparents,great-grandparents and siblings of the prospective student.

“There are 80,000 living alumni and every single one has amember of the family who wants to go to Virginia Tech,”Torgersen said. “We can’t use legacies as a hugefactor.”

Torgersen said 1,115 incoming students this year werelegacies.

According to institutional statistics at the University ofVirginia, 408 students 8212; 13 percent of the current freshmanclass 8212; are legacies. At UVa, legacies are considered to beany applicant who had a parent who attended the university.

Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy proposed the bill and includedthe provision that schools not complying with the requirement couldlose eligibility for federal financial aid.

Alex Wilkins, an admissions counselor at Washington and LeeUniversity, said he did not think the school would be heavilyaffected by the potential threat of the bill because of the heavydependency on donors, grants and other funds the university relieson.

W&L currently has an early decision program requiringstudents to clearly state their intent to attend the university andwithdraw applications from all other schools if they are accepted.However, no one at the school was available for further commentabout the issue.

“There probably are fewer minorities in the early decisionpool, but since only [about] 20 percent are accepted earlydecision, it doesn’t really reflect what the class looks likeat the end,” Torgersen said. “However, there areschools bringing in 50 percent in early decision and are usinglegacies in a significant fashion.”

Torgersen said there is no difference between the standards usedto admit students early and those used at the time of regularadmissions. Though Torgersen said she understood the purpose behindthe proposal, she did not agree with government involvement.

“You’re getting into governing how universities dobusiness,” she said. “I don’t see a problem withthis information being reported, but I don’t see it as theresponsibility of Congress to mandate it.”