4B
OPINION
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15,2004
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
www.kansan.com
--much less likely to graduate at all
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So, as we're playing the parking lot game trying to find a parking spot, my roommate made a discovery that Volkswagen Beetles look as dumb as George Bush. Sucks for them.
I guess I'm getting conflicting messages from the UDK. I'm not sure if you want me to be a slutty undergrad or if you want me to convert to Islam.
I haven't slept since Halo 2 came out. It's ruining my life, someone help me.
Why is there a man throwing envelopes out of his car?
So, my iPod was stolen from me during my ethics class today. What kind of class is that?
I just had a dream that Jesus came to me and said that the sixth floor of Oliver rules.
I just saw somebody carve the phrase "No more war" on the back of a stop sign. I think once people start seeing that stop sign, things are gonna really change around here.
Thanks to whoever found my bus pass in the Union today and turned it in for me. It's nice to know there are still good people out there. Thanks a lot.
It's so nice when drivers don't stop at crosswalks and make pedestrians wait even longer in the 40-degree weather. Stop. You're in a car. It's warmer in there, it's colder out here. Let us cross.
Who ever invented hoodies is a god among men. A sweatshirt just isn't complete without the hood.
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So, I'm thinking it's a bad thing that a KU bus has no headlights. That's a bad idea.
Just remember that during rush hour traffic, Taco Bell has the best restrooms.
Will it ever be possible for the jackass drivers on Daisy Hill to turn on their frickin' turn signals and warn me of their intentions to turn? No. Why? Because that would make it way too easy for pedestrians and we don't want that, do we?
Wow, I love being a freshman at KU. By the time I'm allowed to enroll, the only class left is the History of Dinosaurs.
Dear KJHK: Please stop playing crappy music that was probably made by robots.
I'd just like to say I'm an alumni. I live in Chicago now, and me and my alumni buddies just called in to find out the words to Humpty Dumpty and KUInfo rocked out.
To the guy who honked at me for crossing at a crosswalk: Gee, bud, I'm sorry you had to stop at a stop sign for four seconds. Thanks, have a nice day.
Wanna hear a dirty joke? A boy fell in mud. Get it? He's dirty, he's covered in mud.
All the KU students who are Longhorn fans who are you rooting for this weekend?
By the way, KU shows up in the Sports Illustrated insert of the Kansan. Thank God!
Lew Perkins, go back to Connecticut. Now.
I heard people are attracted to other people because of money. Maybe that's why I'm attracted to Nancy Reagan.
Who the hell runs down the hallway in the freaking morning time in the seventh floor Ellsworth? I wanna know.
I think KU enrollment sucks.
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STAYSKAL'S VIEW
This Kangan welcomes letters to the editors and
guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni.
N
Wayne Stayskal/ KRT CAMPUS
Let's close racial gap in academics
It's no great mystery why non-Asian minority students have low graduation rates. But college administrators act like it is.
You can scarcely walk through a college campus without coming across a flyer crowing about the need for more diversity. Universities are committed to the point of obsession to boosting minority retention rates. Minority designated scholarships, mentor and tutoring programs all strive to boost retention rates. However well-intentioned and worthwhile these efforts may be, they fail to tackle the real heart of the problem. Minority retention rates for non-Asian minorities are low because as a group they have poor academic skills.
FRESH ARRAH
The National Assessment of Educational Progress dubbed "the nation's report card" finds that the average African-American or Hispanic high school senior scored lower in all seven subjects tested than 80 percent of white students tested. In "No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning" authors Abigail and Steven Thernstroms conclude from examining NAEP data that: "The college that admits the average black student is, in effect, choosing a youngster who had made it only through eighth grade."
All the diversity initiatives and tutoring in the world can't make up for deficient academic skills. Students who arrive at college without the baseline of academic skills necessary to do college work aren't likely to acquire them before graduation. And according to a 2003 study released by the U.S. Department of Education they are
ARRAH NIELSEN
opinion@kansan.com
much less likely to go on. According to a National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) which tracked eighth graders from 1988 until 2000 while three quarters of black high school graduates entered college only 1 in 6 graduated. Similarly, seventy percent of Hispanics attended college, and only 15 percent finished. If minority students who scored poorly on the NAEP exams went on to do well in college it would suggest that the test isn't accurate. But that's not what is happening.
The hard part is not recruiting minorities to attend college but getting them to graduate. The good news is that according to that a recent NCES study finds no difference in graduation rates between black and white students with similar test scores. Thus academic skills, not race are the best indicator of who will succeed in college. The key to boosting graduation rates is to boost academic skills. This holds true whether you are black, white, purple, or paisley.
To be sure, the graduation rates and academic performance of non-minority students is nothing to write home about. Because white students far outnumber any other racial group in terms
of sheer numbers there are actually more low scoring white students than minority ones.
Lack of school funding does not explain the poor performance of America's schools. According to the U.S. Department of Education, school funding has increased 50 percent in the last 30 years. But test scores have essentially remained stagnant.
Nor are inner-city schools underfunded as is widely believed and reinforced by books like Jonathan Kozo'l Savage Inequalities. Comprehensive data compiled and analyzed by the National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education from the 1989-1990 school year (the same time period examined in Kozo'l book) reveal only a 5 percent spending differential between inner city and wealthy suburban schools.
If universities wish to boost minority retention rates, a concerted effort must be made to close the racial gap in academic performance, starting at the elementary school level. By the time high school seniors are applying for college it is too late. Educators need to do a better job of educating, and parents need to do a better job of holding them accountable.
Poor academic skills, not discrimination or lack of school funding, explain the low graduation rates of non-Asian minorities. This may be an unpopular view but that doesn't make it any less true. Because the truth remains regardless of whether it is politically correct or we choose to acknowledge it.
Nielsen is an Andover senior in anthropology and history.
We've heard the bromides before about successful sports programs bringing in untold millions in funding for their host institution. But now it appears the ' golden goose' has its own appetite and it is insatiable.
Could it be any clearer where central administration's priorities lie? While it is soliciting many millions in support for its sports entertainment business, it is depending on the students to pay for necessities historically funded by endowments and the State.
Administration's priorities do not have students in mind
Connect the dots: 1) millions donated to a $30+ million football facility, 2) an extra $30/credit hour in tuition for academic buildings and 3) staff to vote on leaving the State civil service system in order to gain (much needed) raises via tuition increases.
Strong Hall has failed to get the state to fund the University at a reasonable level. No problem, just have the students pay for a rapidly increasing percentage of the necessities (salaries, equipment, buildings, etc.), freeing administration to go after the big donors to fund entertainment.
So, while inequities and shortages threaten to cause unease, the leadership offers public spectacle as diversion. It seems our leadership has learned from history. It worked for Roman emperors.
Steve Padget
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Steve Pauger associate professor of architecture
College-specific tuition not fair to liberal arts students
As a transfer student from the University of Missouri, I must say that I strongly oppose this college-specific tuition. One of the factors that attracted me to KU after a semester of the University of Missouri was its price. MU is receiving very little funding from the state, and tuition, even in state tuition, was very costly.
Also, I wonder why the liberal arts and sciences is being singled out for this tuition. Other schools use Malott, Wescoe, and Budig, yet CLAS students get to pay for everyone else as well as themselves. Just because CLAS is the biggest school on campus doesn't justify an increased cost for these particular students.
After viewing the Powerpoint presentation on the Web site, I feel that many of the renovation plans are for aesthetics. It is unnecessary to primp the outside of Wescoe with tuition money. I do, however, support handicap accessibility from Wescoe to Malotti. Those endless stairs would be impossible with a disability. Again, though, I must ask myself, "Why only CLAS students? Will CLAS students be the only people able to use the new facilities?" I know the answer to that question is no, so I do not see a problem in raising tuition for everyone if these renovations are absolutely necessary (which not all of them are).
The chart on the Powerpoint presentation is also incredibly misleading. Of course an MBA is going to be much more expensive per credit hour than a bachelors in arts or science. Of course law school is more expensive. Clearly, the chart was designed to minimize the tuition hike. To me, $450 per semester is significant. I don't have that kind of money in a mayonnaise jar in my backyard, to be sure.
Gabrielle Kissane,
Merriam, KS sophomore
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