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Friday, December 4, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
They can work
Kansas' welfare system is finally taking a step in the right direction.
direction.
Welfare has long been known to financially aid the unemployed. But instead of treating the symptoms of the problem, the system should provide a cure. The system should provide people with incentives or training to get a job, not just monetary aid.
But progress is being made.
The new program would enable recipients whose youngest children are 3 or older to work by providing day care.
But progress is being made.
The Legislature recently drafted a reform proposal to be submitted to the 1988 state congressional session. The bill would instigate a program that would train some welfare recipients in state-subsidized jobs. After the training, recipients would be given a state-financed position with a private business.
The purpose of the program, called KanWork, is to wean recipients off welfare. Giving recipients a skill and placing them in a work environment will help them to find work later in the private sector.
Familiarizing and inoculating welfare recipients to the work world is imperative to fulfill the primary goal of the welfare system: to generate active, productive citizens. KanWork is the first step in reaching this essential goal.
Formula for a riot
The Cuban prisoner uprising is a tale of personal freedom and the public interest. It's a tale of prisoners taking prisoners prisoner — to gain freedom.
The prisoners in Georgia and Louisiana rioted after finding out they may be sent back to Cuba as part of a recently announced agreement with Cuba. Most of those to be deported are criminals or are mentally ill.
And although the situation may sound ironic and distant, it is not. Twenty percent of the Cuban prisoners from the Louisiana prison were transferred this week to the federal prison in Leavenworth.
The true problem, however, is that the situation reached a crisis point.
The prisoners were part of a 1980 boatlift from Cuba; because of their criminal or mental health record in Cuba, they were classified as "excludable" from the United States.
classified as exculcable from rape. So they are on "immigration parole." That means that if they are charged with a criminal offense they can be detained indefinitely, pending deportation.
This system allows hundreds of people with criminal back-grounds to be held in the same place against their will. It was a riot waiting to happen.
not waiting to happen.
Officials should not be in the business of holding such large numbers, especially deportation.
The prisoners deserve fair review and then speedy action, whether it be freedom or deportation.
Mystery debate
Robust debate of pertinent issues by the presidential hopefuls is necessary if our country is going to make a responsible choice in 1988.
This week, for the first time, we had the opportunity to tune in and see all of the hopefuls together on TV. They were scheduled to debate. Debate used to mean the discussion of opposing views.
Tuesday evening, debate was redefined to mean a gathering or serious-looking men wearing power ties who stick to their party rivals like team members and then collectively stick out their tongues at the opposing party.
tongues Names and faces seemed interchangeable. The Democrats Names especially good at being polite.
were especially the operator. Tom Brokaw summed up the Democrats' gentle appreciation of each other with: "I must say that I had the impression that you gentlemen were running against each other. It's a pretty cozy little group we have here."
It's a pretty cozy little group we have here.
Senior Democratic Party leaders met the day after the debate in Washington to see whether there were any stronger candidates who could enter the race. Rather than backing the current candidates, the party is shopping for more flavor.
Another Tuesday event confirmed the unsettled feeling within the party. In a speech to KU Democrats, Kansas State Treasurer Joan Finney said that charisma was the missing ingredient for victory in '88.
So far the race has left less than a bad taste in the public's mouth. It has left no taste.
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
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Selective admissions applies to all
Regents schools must stick together to avoid 'us against them' mentality
By ROBERT GLENNEN
As the president of Emporia State University, I want all students who enter this institution to receive the best education possible. I want to know we are doing everything we can at this institution to ensure that all students take advantage of the educational opportunities available to them. As Emporia State's president, I can make that happen by hiring the best possible professors, by offering the most rigorous curriculum and by providing students with educational advantages and support systems.
and support systems.
However, I also want to know that the students who come to this university are prepared for the challenges a university education requires. I want to know that the students who enter Emporia State as freshmen have the appropriate educational background to enable them to succeed.
That can happen by instituting a selective admission policy that applies to every Regents institution. All seven of them.
The entire issue of selective admissions has generated considerable press over the past few months. The concerns expressed by educators and citizens of the state about the need to improve the academic standards in Kansas are justified. The concept of selective admissions is an appropriate method of addressing those concerns in relation to the evolving needs of today's educational environment. Instituting a selective admissions program for Kansas is an appropriate method of addressing the needs of higher education in the state, as well as a way for us to keep in step with national trends in education.
A U.S. Department of Education report issued in October 1986 titled "College-level Remediation" indicates that there are 2,785 institutions of higher learning across the country that admit freshmen. Of these, 1,238 institutions practice open admissions. However, 63 percent of those open admissions institutions are public two-year community colleges and technical schools. There are 459 institutions identified as selective admissions schools, those admitting students from the upper third of their high school graduating classes.
It has long been the American way to provide educational opportunity for all citizens, and open admissions provides equal access to higher education for all individuals. Unfortunately, the open admissions issue has initiated considerable concern by many who argue that institutions cannot possibly provide quality if they continue to have open access.
have opened. But R. Samuelson was expressed most recently by Robert J. Samuelson in an Oct. 5, 1987, "Newsweek" magazine article in which he states that anyone who wants to go to college can and that high school loses its relevance because students know they can go on to college. He points out that white we are graduating more people with college degrees, these degrees have lost their meaning. Mass medicinity has been the result. Because of this "education-for-all" philosophy, a college degree has become meaningful because it does not signify any real accomplishment.
In principle, I agree with Samuelson's observations. However, I strongly believe that our society benefits from each person who receives a college degree. Every person who graduates from college improves his life through that valuable exposure to education. Those who have attended college are the beneficiaries of new ideas, new knowledge,
At the same time, American taxpayers have the right to expect quality. I believe that selective admissions is one way of assuring high quality. However, I also believe that exit standards are more important than entrance standards in determining the quality of education provided by an institution. The only true way to determine the quality of an education is to measure the academic level and ability of an individual when he or she graduates, not when he or she enters school.
new skills, personal development and satisfaction that has helped them contribute to our society
'I believe that exit standards are more important than entrance standards in determining the quality of education provided by an institution.'
— Robert Glennen president, Emporia State University
However, the main issue at hand is selective admissions. And the key goal in selective admissions is to admit students to our universities who are prepared for a university education. Propayers and legislators have a justifiable concern when they question why they are paying for education twice — once in the secondary schools and then again through remedial programs on college campuses. Remedial education assists those with borderline academic skills to master their deficiencies and move on to the standard college curriculum.
The Regents' proposed college curriculum would undoubtedly result in bringing better-prepared students to our college campuses. Those of us in higher education support that. However, the development of any college curriculum must be done in partnership with the high schools in the state. High school educators must know that we in higher education support their efforts to excel as we develop plans to ensure that we excel as well.
There are many students who will meet our selective admissions standards who still will need some remedial or developmental assistance in order to be totally assimilated into the academic mainstream. Many of the brightest young people coming out of high schools today have learning disorders in one area or another. Public institutions would be remiss to forget the lessons we have learned in the last two decades in methods of diagnosing and in resolving these deficiencies. Even the most selective institutions — Stanford and Notre Dame, to name two — provide remedial assistance to their students. Can a state-supported institution do less? Our campuses must have such help available.
Currently the small institutions in Kansas draw students for various reasons. They do not attend these institutions because the class demands are less difficult than at the larger institutions. They come because of the small class size and because they have more frequent and positive contacts with their professors. These students also receive additional personal contact with administrators and staff that generally is not available at larger institutions.
I can relate numerous success stories about
students who came to Emporia State because they wanted the small classes and personal contact we offer. We have long enjoyed a tradition of providing the state with some of the best and brightest teachers, counselors and administrators. However, our graduates have been successful in other fields as well. Last year, a 1983 Emporia alumna graduated 15th in her medical school class at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita. Every year, we send a number of psychology graduates on to the top doctoral programs in the country. We also have enjoyed one of the highest success rates of graduates who pass the certified public accountant exam in the state.
Emporia State has had an open admission policy, as have the other Regents schools. Emporia State has proudly offered some of the best remedial programs in the state. Despite these "handicaps," Emporia State has succeeded in graduating extremely successful individuals who have excelled in graduate school, teaching business and the arts and sciences. However I believe that Emporia State, like all of the Regents schools in the state, must move to institute a selective admissions policy that will allow us to continue to produce excellent graduates. It would be a policy that would allow us to put meaning back into the words, "I am a college graduate."
To ensure the integrity of the higher education systems in Kansas under the Board of Regents, we must have one set of admissions criteria for all Regents schools to avoid a two-tier higher education system in Kansas. In times of limited resources and students, Kansas cannot afford to have an "us-against-them" mentality among its state universities. If the regional schools are not included in a selective admission plan, we would force our high school seniors to attend one of the "big three" in the state or to settle for the stigma of getting a "second class" education. This perception would severely damage the reputation and image of the regional universities, and it would adversely affect the recruiting and retention of faculty and students.
Furthermore, in the case of Emporia State University, our Regents-approved mission statement emphasizes teacher education. Emporia State must have selective admissions to assume that the best and brightest are becoming classroom teachers. Must we ask parents to have their children taught by "rejects" from other institutions?
At a time when America has become aware of the vital importance of quality teachers in the classrooms of the nation, it would be regrettable for Kansas to send the message that the institution with a primary mission for preparing teachers and other specialists in education has been relegated to a second-tier of state institutions with "lower standards."
Allan Bloom, in the "Closing of the American Mind," states that universities have served us well, yet he candidly points out that they must change. The Regents universities in Kansas must constantly change to stay in tune with the times. Selective admissions for all institutions is a concept whose time has come in this state.
Robert Glennen is president of Emporia State University.
Policy neglects high-quality students
Humbug.
Admissions changes would help marginal students, hurt minorities
Congratulations have recently been extended to the College Assembly on having achieved the difficult task of creating tougher out-of-state admissions standards for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The new policy allows for the automatic acceptance of students with high school grade point averages of 3.0 or better, ACT scores of 23 or better, or who have completed the Regents recommended curriculum. This much is fine. The rest of the policy, however, is questionable.
The remaining applicants are to be accepted in blocks of declining order of GPA. Those with 2.7 to 2.99 GPA's first, then those from 2.5 to 2.74 GPA's and so on until the college can accommodate no more, or until the minimum GPA of 2.0 is reached.
in addition, an Exceptions Committee is empowered to handle individual students, circumventing the system for those with special circumstances.
Consider a hypothetical applicant, Bob, with a 2.0 high school GPA. He has earned, on average, one D for every B on his transcript. And if God forbid, Bob managed to pull an A in Office Practice, he balanced that out with an F, or maybe two D's if he studied hard.
circumstances.
There are several reasons I think this policy will fail to serve the college as a selective enrollment tool. The first is painfully obvious. In these days of grade inflation, a GPA of 2.0 or even 2.3 reflects weak high school performance.
If I were Robert Lineberry, dean of the college,
I would hesitate to open my door to Bob.
My second misgiving about the new policy, while it may appear trivial, is nevertheless valid. Is it not possible to take the classes in the Regents recommended curriculum and not learn anything? I remember nothing of my high school chemistry class, except that I got a D. When I finished that course, I barely comprehended the difference between ice and steam.
I also question the most basic premise of the plan. It assumes some inherent need to admit students until Wescoe Hall is about to collapse rather than stopping at some comfortable level of enrollment, below absolute capacity.
What this means is that as financial resources increase, the quality of students admitted will decrease. Next year, when the Legislature has approved some diluted Margin of Excellence package, the University of Kansas will be free to dip even further into the reserve of marginal applicants, even admitting our Bob described above.
My final and deepest fear about this new policy is the effect it could have on our already low minority enrollment. Beyond the usual, debatable argument of systematic bias in the ACT, my worries are grave.
worries the two facts fuel this fear. First, the college must continue to admit as many minor students as possible if we hope at leasto maintain the University's 7 percent minority enrollment. Second, as Black Student Union leader Brian Dougherty told the Assembly, most minority students at the University are non-Kansans who finished with a GPA below 3.0 in high school.
From these facts, significant problems arise. Many prospective minority students will fall into the late acceptance category, delaying notification of acceptance until as late as April 15. In the intense competition for minority students, the college cannot afford to wait that long.
A very high proportion of minority students also requires financial aid in order to attend college. That aid could be very difficult to secure as late as April.
as April.
Obviously I am discontent with the new admissions policy in the college. I can only hope that the administrators and faculty of the college can work with the Office of Admissions to apply the policy in a tough yet fair manner, preventing the erosion of the fine reputation the University has earned.
Dan Houston is a Tulsa, Okla., junior majoring in political science.
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed