Bush Tells Minority Journalists Colleges Should End Legacy Admissions
The AP reports President Bush, "who followed his father and grandfather to Yale University despite an undistinguished academic record, said Friday that colleges should get rid of 'legacy' admission preferences that favor the sons and daughters of alumni." Said Bush, "I think it ought to be based on merit." The Dallas Morning News says Bush "joked that the 'legacy' factor did not determine his admission to the Ivy League school. 'In my case, I had to knock on a lot of doors to follow the old man's footsteps,' he said, drawing laughs." Meanwhile, the Detroit Free Press reports some colleges "have moved ahead of Bush. Texas A&M University abolished legacy admissions this year. The University of Georgia and the University of California system dropped their legacy policies earlier."
Kennebunkport Pastor Tells Congregation, Bush Family To Jettison Material Gifts.
The AP reports from Kennebunkport, ME, that with President Bush in attendance, Very Rev. Martin Luther Agnew "implored his affluent congregation. . .to jettison their material possessions, gently mocking George H.W. Bush's struggles on the golf course to drive home his point. The preached Sunday to a packed Episcopal church just down the road from the Bush family's seaside estate. . . . 'Gated communities,' Agnew said, 'tend to keep out God's people.' But, he said, 'Our material gifts do not have to be a wall.'" The sermon "culminated with a joke about the first President Bush's battle to chip a golf ball out of an anthill. Swinging the club in a mock re-enactment, Agnew said Bush had swung twice and whiffed completely, wiping out hundreds of ants. The ants got together and agreed: 'If we're going to live, we better get on the ball!' The former president sat stone-faced through this parable, even as his family, including the current President Bush, looked at him and smiled. The ex-president gamely high-fived Agnew when the priest approached the second pew."
