A big blow to kids who hoped their family connections would get them into a prestigious college could be coming as one of Assemblymember Phil Ting’s last bills on his way out of office would ban legacy admissions at universities statewide.

When the conservative-majority US Supreme Court shot down affirmative action at colleges and universities last June, one unexpected backlash to that decision was a push to ban legacy admissions at those universities as well. Legacy admissions are sort of the opposite of affirmative action, as they’re college admissions that give a leg up to students who have parents or grandparents who are alumni of that university. The obvious ploy for the university is that those parents and grandparents tend to be wealthy, and therefore more likely to make financial contributions to the school, while the students that benefit from legacy admissions tend to be white and wealthy.

Several universities nationwide have since banned legacy admissions, and the states Colorado and Virginia have also outlawed legacy admissions at public universities. Maryland has banned legacy admissions at both public and private colleges. And now the New York Times reports that our own state Assemblymember Phil Ting has a bill in the state legislature that would ban legacy admission at California’s private universities.

California’s public universities already do not allow legacy admissions.

“It makes complete sense to now ensure that we don’t look at someone’s wealth or lineage with the university to decide whether to admit them,” Ting told the Times. He said his bill “doesn’t ban admitting donors’ or alumni children,” but “it just ensures that there’s no preferential treatment.”

It will probably not come as a shocker to you that the two California private universities with the largest percentages of legacy admission students are Stanford and USC, both with 14% of their incoming student bodies being legacy admitted, according to the most recent year’s data. The University of Santa Clara was not far behind at 13%.

Ting’s bill AB 1780 has already passed the state Assembly 55-0, and is currently in state Senate committees. The measure would have to pass the state Senate by August 31, and be signed by Governor Newsom, to become law.

Phil Ting, of course, is in the final months of his state Assembly term. He’ll be termed out at the end of this year, and SF Supervisor Catherine Stefani is running to be his successor.

Related: Affirmative Action Decision at Supreme Court Will Likely Mean Less Diversity at California's Private Universities [SFist]

Image: Palo Alto, CA, USA - Sept. 17, 2015: Stanford University Hoover Tower. Completed in 1941, the 50th year of Stanford University's anniversary, the tower was inspired by the cathedral tower in Salamanca, Spain. (Getty Images)

Looking to go deeper in debt while you work toward an increasingly useless degree? Well, look no further than the UC system. Making this the sixth tuition hike in seven years, the UC Regents voted to increase student tuition by 9.3 percent yesterday. (An aside: They also agreed to hire several "new top administrators at eye-popping wages -- UC San Francisco and UC Davis landed new chancellors at annual booties of $450,000 and $400,000, respectively. Wee.) Will this most recent increase help the ailing UC system? No. No, it won't. As Regent Eddie Island of Oakland told the Chron, "I feel like I'm witnessing the death of a great institution ... We ought to pause and say, Where are we going with this? We know this isn't the last student fee increase. Are we giving up on affordability? Are we giving up on access? And what's the effect on diversity?" Let us help: yes, yes, and it's not good. Champagne wishes and hummus dreams, Regents. You bastards. In related news, overseas hackers swiped confidential information belonging to "tens of thousands of students and alumni at UC Berkeley and Mills College" after gaining access to systems at the Cal campus' health services center. Luckily, your tuition is going to pay for the organic wine collection of a transgressive comparative literature professor, not a decent IT team.

Yesterday, David Hazinski attempted to harness the awesome power of the world wide web with this colonel of wisdom about the currant state of journalism. In his op-ed peace for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he informs us that such journalistic mediums as CNN YouTube debates, political blogs, and cellphone videos are, in a word, crap. At least when it comes to giving and receiving accurate, Pulitzer-worthy information.

Granite, the only time we here at SFist concern ourselves with accuracy is if it involves us getting something for free, butt old man Hazinski has a point: "unfettered citizen journalism" really needs standards. Makes scents, right? Standards that, presumably, can only be created, administered, and understood within the holy temple of j-school. But if he's sew intent on maintaining the time-honored tradition of elbow patch-adorned sports jackets, hiding flask of whiskey in desk drawers, and spewing phrases like "excellence in journalism" or "hot scoop!" then why the does his article mimic any TLDR posting you might find on l'Internet? The exact shit he's freaking out about?

Take, for example, how Hazinski -- the head of broadcast gnus at the University of Georgia -- misspells "principles." Twice.

...Citizen reports can be a valuable addition to news and information flow with some protections. ...There are commonly accepted ethical principals — two source confirmation of controversial information or the balanced reporting of both sides of a story, for example, but adhering to the principals is voluntary...

The incredibly crowded space was crawling with an audience that was brimming with excitement. Their excitement had been curtailed while Grand Ole' Party and San Francisco's own, Still Flyin' opened for this seemingly "members-only" band. Based out of New York City, this four-piece afro-pop band met while attending New York's best, Columbia University. The incredible buzz has been everywhere - ranging from blogs to the New York Times.

In June, the Times said, "Even without an album, Vampire Weekend have made one of the most impressive debuts of the year." Impressive is headlining a show without even having a CD released. The two songs, "Mansford Roof" and "Ladies of Cambridge," which have been available on iTunes were some of the crowd favorites. The live versions of "A-Punk" and "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" were off the hook. The pianist, Rostam Batmanglij and bassist, Chris Baio were both equally as talented though a few dance lessons might improve the whole aesthetic. You also can't forget the audience participation in "One," when everyone was screaming "Blake's got a new face!" over and over. Apparently, Blake is from Palo Alto, a Stanford biochemistry major who disappointingly didn't show up for the concert. How do you not show up to a concert when a song is written about you? Koenig and the rest of the band were severly disappointed. Shame on you!

Oh this is a smashing idea.

Jennifer Gooch's site One Cold Hand reunites missing single gloves with their owners. Yay! Since her site opened in March of this year, her finds have spiked considerably since winter began last month. And so has her press coverage: the New York Times, USA Today, and the Associated Press, to name just a few, have all picked up on OCH so far. The AP article notes that Gooch's first glove was "was a moist, lambskin glove that someone had propped up on a ledge on campus." (We're not exactly sure why, but: ew.)

Although not many of her found gloves have reunited with their other halves, Jennifer says that "[i]t's kind of whimsical and bittersweet ... it makes you feel there's this opportunity for benevolence." Well then, That said, it should come as no surprise to you that the Gooch is also a graduate student in the Carnegie Mellon University School of Art.

Sadly, her site -- which wonderfully breaks down single, lost gloves into categories like "leather," "left," "mixed materials," "ambidextrous," "synthetic," and so on -- isn't available in SF or the Bay Area. Not sure we're the glove-wearing kind of city that is Pittsburgh, but still, we personally lose several pairs of gloves during the winter season. Something like this would be nice to have around these parts. Alas. (Look at that, it is bittersweet!)

Now that the bets are in (okay, so no one really cast any bets - how boring is that?), you can go to Cafe du Nord, tonight, to check out San Francisco's unsigned best at Live 105's "Top 5 Local Bands Contest." Tuesday, venture over to Great American Music Hall to catch San Francisco's own, Scissors for Lefty. (You'll want to purchase your tickets soon to their off-the-hook New Year's Party at BotH.) Oh, you'll also get to see Juliette and the Licks headline. (It looks like they like to perform sans clothes. Woot!)

Back in July, we briefly mentioned a "band-of-the-moment" named Vampire Weekend. They are back and this time they are headlining at The Independent. We listened to Mansford Roof (listen here) and we couldn't get over how catchy and quirky they are. We love them; their infectious bite style is called: "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa", "Upper West Side Soweto", "Campus", and "Oxford Comma Riddim". We feel it safe to assume that the inside joke is for Columbia University's alumni only. Look for a full length album late January.

Friday we'll be hanging out at Live 105's "Not So Silent Night." Our attentions will be focused on the local band (who won Monday night's competition), Jimmy Eat World and Modest Mouse (two of our favorites). Saturday, quirky sock-loving violinist, Andrew Bird, from Chicago is back in town. We saw him earlier this year and was overwhelmed by the incredible process that Bird goes through to create his minimalist folk electronic-art music.

Don't forget Tori Amos' three-night stint over in Oakland at Paramount Theatre, Friday through Sunday.

Take the jump to see the full listings...

Last night 24-year-old Memorial Oak Grove tree-sitter Nate Hill fell on his tushie after plummeting 40 feet out of the tree. He suffered both a broken wrist and ankle, but is in fine, fighting, camera-ready condition.

He was trying to get out of the tree, via a traverse line, to visit his poppa waiting down below. But it seems that he was not, in fact, on the line, and then took a nasty fall while trying to ride the non-existent traverse. Ouch. According to NBC 11, "Hill said although he does not want to place blame he believes the accident would not have happened if the university had not put up a fence around the grove." Oh, come now. One, if Hill hadn't been 40 feet up high in a tree to begin with, succumbing to the temptations of gravity, he wouldn't have fallen. Two, he "thought he was connected to a traverse line but he was mistaken." So? It's your fault, you sexy, klutzy bear.

"UC Police Chief Victoria Harrison said that the school built the new fence as a security measure prior to the forcible removal of the protesters from the trees," which should be happening...sometime soon.

But here's to a speedy recovery, Hill. (Little tip: tell the doctors that codeine upsets your stomach, and you'll get the good stuff.)

image credit: NBC 11

After a 10-month protest atop an oak grove next to Memorial Stadium, a judge ruled on Monday that UC Berkeley can now start removing up-in-a-tree protesters, as well as their ground support, even if police can't identify the protesters by name.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Richard Keller amended his ruling from a month ago. At that time, his decree gave authorities the power to strip the environmental activists off of the UC-owned land, but only if they could identify the protesters by name.

According to the Chronicle, only one protester could be identified "David Galloway, 36, because the other dozen sitters wear masks and would not give their real names." And now? The students and activists protesting a proposed sports training facility in the place of the grand old oak are all fair game.

But the university (wisely) will take its time to proceed with any forcible action. UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof also claims that "this ruling means it's all but impossible for reasonable people to see this protest as something benign."


Image: George Derk / Daily Cal

Charles Hurth, city attorney for the tiny town of New Haven, Mo., is one of the main men behind the push to make California Electoral College votes more Republican-y, a confusing ploy that would split the votes by congressional districts. But Hurth also has another claim to fame:

Charles "Chep" Hurth III was best known for a headline-grabbing incident a decade ago in which he bit a young female law student on the butt in a bar...Hurth, then a third-year law student at St. Louis University, was taken to court by a young woman who said he grabbed her in a bar and bit her on the buttocks so hard she required medical attention - then laughed and high-fived his friends...Hurth testified that he had told her she should take it as a compliment...The female attorney sued him and took something else instead - a jury's award of $27,500 for damages.

It's fascinating to see how far the GOP can fall without bottoming out.

UPDATE: Andrew Malcolm of the LA Times reports that the Electoral vote initiative backers are calling it quits. Alas. But, Charles, look at the bright side: more time for you to sink your teeth into more ass. Yay! Anyway, read more about it here. (Thanks for the tip, reader.)