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Thursday, January 14, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Regents should close lid on open admissions rule
Although some regard "qualified," formerly selective, admissions as an elitist view toward education, the problems with the state's open admissions policy are actually painful realities.
Students can graduate from Kansas high schools without a good background in literature, science, geography, history, math, the arts and the English language.
And the University of Kansas is overflowing with students not prepared for college. As a result, KU is forced to divert its scarce resources from college instruction and research to teaching students what they should have learned in high school. That is a painful expense when KU already has crowded classrooms, underpaid faculty and insufficient research support.
The reality is that, in these tight economic and highly competitive times, KU simply cannot be both high school and college. It cannot afford to be a flagship research school, attracting research funds and the best faculty and students, and be a center for remedial English classes.
The unprepared students suffer also. They don't receive the education and attention they need, simply because a university is not equipped or organized to teach the three Rs. There is a better way.
The first step is to eliminate the open admissions policy that says that any Kansas high school graduate is automatically eligible to attend any of the Regents schools. The Board of Regents bravely has taken that first step by proposing a qualified admissions policy. Under the plan, which would take effect for the Fall 1992 semester, Kansas high school graduates would have to meet one of three criteria:
Rank in the top third of their graduating class;
Score a 23 or higher on the ACT;
- Complete the Regents recommended curriculum with a minimum 2.0 grade point average. The curriculum would require high school students to take four English classes, three math classes, three science classes, three social science classes and two foreign language classes.
The plan also allows up to 15 percent of incoming freshmen to be exempt from the new standards.
The Regents are to be commended for their courage. The proposal is a necessary step. However, the proposal is a lot like swiss cheese: it looks good but has a lot of holes.
The core curriculum and GPA requirement would solve much of the problem if they were the sole requirements. But by giving students three criteria, high schools still can send students to college and not offer a solid curriculum to all students. In other words, "unqualified" students are admitted to college, and the college still will be forced to have remedial classes.
The Regents and the state legislature should consider:
■ Dropping the "ranking" requirement. It's a loophole.
■ Incorporating the state's 19 junior colleges. The argument that some students with poor high school grades may just be late bloomers is legitimate. Therefore, these students should attend a junior college, where they would get closer attention and could prove their abilities. A good academic record would be a ticket of admittance to a Regents institution in their sophomore year.
neally, the state should encourage all high schools to adopt the Regents recommended standards as graduation requirements for all students. That way all students would have a complete education and be qualified to attend KU. In essence, it would be the return of open admissions.
1odd Cohen for the editorial board.
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
Other Voices
Yes, it's UF's fault that campus buildings don't meet all of the state's fire codes. And yes, UF officials have known for years that they are violating those fire codes. But they aren't criminals, and they haven't done it on purpose.
It's much easier to obey the laws about jawwalking and littering than it is to obey the laws about fire safety.
"We will never catch up on all our fire code violations," said Charlie Reed, chancellor of the State University System. Because many of the buildings on Florida's public university campuses are so old (and preserved as historic landmarks), they have become fire hazards. Buildings in 1910 didn't come with sprinkler systems and fire walls — less of a hassle that way.
It's also much cheaper.
The Independent Florida Alligator University of Florida
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"CAN YA BELIEVE THAT?! NOT TEN MINUTES AGO I SOLD MY LAST BOOT RING...I CAN ORDER YA ONE, BE HERE A YEAR FROM APRIL..."
Free condoms more than silliness
When I heard that Student Senate was planning to hand out free condoms with instructions for use at registration, I mean handed out at registration, not used at registration . . . (Their eyes met across the crowded ballroom, he pushed through the line at Credit Cards, and they embraced beneath Checks. "Your condom or mine?" he asked). . . my first reaction was to scoff. I complained that paying fees was enough of a royal pain without having to dodge water balloons while standing in line.
Surely, I thought, there were better uses for $4,000, perhaps a special bonus for anyone working in Strong Hall actually seen smiling at a student. Or the money could be used to fund a much more complete and long-lived information center for those who want or need more help, or less, trendy recommendations.
It's not as if AIDS is a big secret. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome made the cover of Time magazine. There have been numerous television programs and newspaper articles. Watkins Hospital sent out fliers on the subject last semester, and posters on campus advertised informational meetings.
It seems to me that a certain awareness of the world around one is a basic survival trait. If a
college student is too imbecilic or passive to take advantage of the information already available, then a free condom and pamphlet probably won't save him. And he doesn't belong in the first place, taking up space in crowded classrooms
And it's not as if condoms are hard to come by,
not like the bad old days when a red-faced freshman, stoked full of absurd optimism, eased his way to the back of a drugstore that he planned never to enter again, and whispered his heart's desire to some middle-aged sadist in a white coat who promptly bellowed:
"Got a big date tonight, huh? Who's the lucky girl? How many do you want? One?"
Eh... one box.
"Two dozen or dozen? What kind? What color?
Lubed or not lubed? Ribbed or not ribbed?
LARGE OR SMALL?"
Now you can find them at grocery check-out counters, which is where they should be.
Maybe handing out condoms at registration isn't such a bad idea after all.
The pea-brained Puritans of this country, who somehow seem to think that if everyone is very quiet their sons and daughters won't discover their genitals until they're married and it's too late, have succeeded in making sex education in the school controversial.
But even without AIDS, the tragically high rate of teen-age pregnancy, not to mention miscellaneous venereal diseases, mandates sex education as a simple necessity. Until such time as parents demonstrate their ability and willingness to provide this education, the school system must do so.
Some may say that handing out condoms at registration is a silly idea, or that it's ten years late or that it tends to trivialize a serious problem. But condoms at KU registration may be the first step toward getting condoms and "Safer Sex" pamphlets into high schools, grade schools and grocery stores, where they are really needed.
If so, the money will have been we...,
Johnson is an Alta Vista senior majoring in
journalism.
K A N S A N
MAILBOX
Budig should lead more
The president of Ohio State University announced the hiring of the school's new football coach. The chancellor of the University of Kansas wasn't even at the press conference for KU's new football coach.
The president of Oklahoma University was on the sidelines at the Orange Bowl. KU's chancellor has never been on the sidelines during a game.
Chancellor Gene A. Budig was not involved in the search for a new KU football coach. Budig himself was quoted by the Kansas City Times (12/24):
Bob Frederick will decide who will be the football coach. The search committee determines the final list of who will be interviewed. Obviously, he (Frederick) will consult with me once he has made his decision. He was hired to be athletic director.
Shouldn't the chancellor be involved in the searching for and hiring decision of an experienced employee who would require a compensation package of $150,000 to $300,000, as Earle Bruce would have? Yet, Budig didn't care to be involved in the search or the decision.
Football is just the tip of the iceberg. The faculty recently voted on whether to become only the second unionized faculty in the state. More than a thousand students petitioned recently regarding inadequate class availabilities that sometimes prevent their graduation. The conclusion is that KU is a leaderless university.
Like a middle manager cannot be successful without the support of the company president,
the football coach (no matter how capable) can't be successful without the cooperation of the CEO of the university and without the university support he can generate.
An alarming number of informed sources indicate the capable coaches and athletic directors that have left KU in the past three years did so because of the inadequate support and cooperation of the chancellor. It only makes sense. Yet Budig remains.
Best wishes for success to Coach Mason, but we've been through this before. It's time supporters of KU football realize that their embarrassment is not the fault of the players or coaches. The responsibility lies at the top — in the office of the chancellor.
KU's long-suffering football fans, faculty supporters and student advocates have every right to demand a chancellor who is capable of leading and makes it a public priority to correct inferior programs.
J. David Holt Parkville, Mo., resident
Beerbower Hall
B. Branit
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed