For years, the Texas Legislature has been working to eliminate the automatic admission allocated for top 10 percent high school graduates into Texas public universities.

Now, since the bill for limiting the amount of incoming freshmen into colleges based on their rank in the top 10 percent has passed through the Senate, it seems as if the proposed legislation is finally getting somewhere.

The bill, which was passed in the Senate on March 25 and currently awaits House of Representatives approval, would limit state universities to admit no more than 60 percent of their incoming freshman class based on their rank in the top 10 percent of their high school class. Although students who do well enough to rank in the top 10 percent of their high school class should be rewarded, the current legislation does little to help universities hoping to diversify their student bodies.

Under the current legislation many qualified prospective students are being turned away simply because they did not rank high enough at an institution where rank varies from high school to high school based on the number of students in the graduating class.

According to an article in the Dallas Morning News, 81 percent of incoming freshmen at the University of Texas at Austin were automatically admitted into the university under the top ten percentage requirement.

The new bill will allow universities to examine other factors that don’t always get reflected into the qualifications of making the top 10 percent. The student who did well on his or her SAT, the athlete who excelled in extracurricular activities, a talented artist or even the person who could only make it to the top 10.6 percent of his or her class are all prime examples of prospective students who have been or will be overlooked if the current legislation is not altered.

News editor Rose Baca for the editorial board.