Can you believe it? In 2015, we are still seeing racism on college campuses. One would assume that students who attend college come from the more educated middle or upper classes and; therefore, are more open to people of other races.
That certainly is not the case at the University of Oklahoma, where a racist video surfaced last week. Members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity can be seen singing a song to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, vowing never to have black students in their fraternity, using racial slurs like the “N” word, and talk about lynching them from a tree (Chronicle of Higher Education, March 11, 2015). This is absolutely despicable.
University of Oklahoma David Boren responded quickly by suspending the fraternity and expelled two students who lead the song once they were identified in the video. He called the students “disgraceful” and said he hoped the students would leave town, offering to buy them a one way ticket out of town. It should be noted that the national office of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity also suspended the chapter at Oklahoma. I applaud President Boren for his fast and decisive action. In my opinion, he did the right thing.
However, President Boren’s decisions are now being called into question. Did he act too quickly without having all of the facts? Is the fraternity students’ song considered free speech? Did he deny the students who were expelled their due process rights? Legal experts are now suggesting that Boren went too far and will open the university to legal challenges.
What is typical in situations like this, once the attorneys have been consulted, is for the president to issue a very carefully worded and legalistic statement about the inappropriateness of the incident in question, state that an investigation will ensue, how students involved will be given their due process rights, and if the evidence suggests campus rules have been violated, the appropriate actions will be taken based on the student code of conduct and the student handbook, the rules and regulations for students.
Too often, our decisions as university presidents are greatly influenced by university attorneys because we don’t want to subject the university to more lawsuits. Case in point is the recent incident at the Pennsylvania State University where members of the Kappa Delta Rho fraternity posted pictures of nude and unconscious female students on a secret Facebook where only members of the fraternity had access. The Facebook page also included pictures of drug sales and hazing. In response, Penn State University President Eric Barron stated that “an investigation was underway, the university has its own judicial process for student conduct which will be followed, we want to make sure we do this right, we are committed to due process, that the right people are brought to justice, and anybody who is responsible for that type of truly offensive behavior is punished” (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/penn-state-vows-punish-those-behind-kappa-delta-rho-page-n326031). It’s clearly, a very measured response that was most likely influenced by legal counsel.
It should be noted that the female students in the pictures did not consent to having their pictures taken much less posted on a Facebook page. Officials at both Penn State and the fraternity headquarters have suspended the Kappa Delta Rho chapter.
Are Oklahoma and Penn State isolated incidences? Clearly not. The national office of Sigma Alpha Epsilon is investigating two of its other chapters for alleged displays of racism, at Louisiana Tech University and the University of Texas at Austin. The University of Washington is also investigating claims that members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity shouted racist comments at black students participating in a march protesting violence against blacks last month as they passed the fraternity’s house. The University of Maryland at College Park is investigating a racist and sexist email allegedly sent in January of 2014 by a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. However, it recently came to light when it was published online (Chronicle of Higher Education, March 13, 2015).
Colleges and universities across the nation should use these situations as a way to discuss racism in our country. Faculty on campuses across America should use what happened at the University of Oklahoma or other universities to teach students to explore their beliefs and be more tolerant of other races different from their own. These are typically called “teach-ins” and can be very useful to examine subjects that can be very controversial. After all, isn’t that what universities are all about? Educating and providing young men and women with information that can help them be more enlightened and become more informed members of our society, should be the mission of all universities.
Racism on college campuses will not end after the University of Oklahoma or Pennsylvania State University incidents. However, we must send the clear message that racism will not be tolerated on our college campuses. We must continue to issue appropriate punishment for these despicable acts. This won’t eliminate racism in American, but it will certainly send the message that racism has no place in higher education.
Showing posts with label minorities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label minorities. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
The Price of a College Degree. Is it Worth the Price?
For several years now, Americans have been questioning the value of higher education. Is a college degree worth the thousands of dollars it costs? Does the bachelors’ degree lead to a good paying job? Higher education faces many challenges in the nation. Unfortunately, one major challenge is the escalating cost of a college education. And as Americans question its value, the college degree has begun to lose its prominence in the minds of many Americans. The evidence to support this is the decline in enrollments in colleges and universities throughout the country. The problem has been further fueled by the high unemployment rates and the need by Americans for employment and the promise of a steady income.
The National Center for Education Statistics reported that there was a 2% drop in the enrollment of undergraduates in colleges and universities across the country from 2010 to 2012. Additionally, the U.S. Census Bureau reported a decline in college enrollments in the fall of 2012 by half a million students compared to the previous year. According to Census Bureau data the biggest drop was among older students, those 25 and older, and among white students who saw a decline from 67% to 58%. Surprisingly, Hispanic and African American students did not follow the trend, but rather their enrollments increased during the same period, from 11% to 17% for Hispanics and from 14% to 15% for African Americans. More recently, the Chronicle of Higher Education related that college enrollments this past spring semester decreased by 0.8% for the third year in a row. This is compared to a 2.3% decline over the previous one year period. The biggest drop, 4.9%, occurred among four-year for-profit colleges compared to 9.7% decline last year, and at two-year public colleges, which fell by 2.7%. Thirty-seven states saw enrollment declines, while 13 states reported increases.
One logical assumption is that the drop in college enrollments was precipitated by the number of high school graduates not going on to college. The U.S. Department of Labor reported that indeed fewer high school graduates were going on to college last year: 65.9% in 2013 versus 66.2% in 2012. The drop; however, was only 3 tenths of one percent. While this is minimal, it does not account for the larger drop in college enrollments.
Today, the public and politicians expect colleges and universities to provide an education that leads immediately to a good paying job. College administrators can no longer expect students and parents to incur debt to fund an education that in many instances leads to uncertain career opportunities. Higher education has been steadily pricing itself out of the market in the minds of Americans. Data from the National Center of Education Statistics indicate that the cost of college (tuition, fees, and room and board) rose 40% at public institutions of higher education and rose 28% at private non-profit institutions during a ten-year period, 2002 to 2012. According to an August 15, 2012 Bloomberg article, “college tuition and fees have surged 1,120%… since 1978, four times faster than the increase in the consumer price index.”
Nationwide, colleges and universities have gotten so expensive creating a perception that the pursuit of higher learning is no longer as valuable as in past years. U.S. News and World Report, in a recent article, suggested that while tuition prices at public four-year colleges are growing more slowly than they have in more than 30 year, the fact remains that tuition has dramatically outpaced other consumer goods. For example, from 2003 to 2013 college tuition grew nearly 80% while Medicare grew 43.1%, Food and Beverages 31.2%, Housing 22.8%, Men’s Apparel, 6.9% and Women’s Apparel 5.6%, as compared to an increase in the Consumer Price Index of 26.7% during the same ten-year period.
The dramatic increase in college costs has been due in large part to the recession and a weak economy, both at the state and national levels; dramatic cuts in state funds to public higher education institutions; and drops in enrollments, due to the scrutiny of the value of higher education. Inside Higher Ed recently reported that there has been a 7.6% drop in state appropriations for colleges in 2012, the largest decline in a half a century. Forty-one of the fifty states cut their spending for higher education from as little of 1% in Indiana to as much as 41% in New Hampshire. In the last five years spending by states nationwide is down 28%. All but two states, North Dakota and Wyoming, cut funding for their institutions of higher education. Thirty-six states cut higher education funding by more than 20%, eleven states have cut funding by more than one-third, and two states, Arizona and New Hampshire, have cut their higher education spending in half. At the federal level, budget cuts have impacted research programs, student support and financial aid programs and many other programs that support students who attend our institutions of higher education.
In response to these budget cuts, colleges and universities have raised tuition to make up the difference. Over the last 25 years, the share of public university revenues coming from tuition and fees has climbed steadily to 47% this year, from 23% in 1987, according to a March 6, 2013 article in the New York Times. Moreover, college administrators, due mostly in response to pressure coming from legislators and governors, have begun to freeze tuition and fees, a move that unfortunately is not sustainable, given that the other costs of doing business will not freeze. As colleges raise tuition costs, the anticipated effect is a potential drop in enrollments. To ameliorate this effect, colleges have discounted tuition by providing scholarships and other forms of student financial aid, a practice that private, high-priced institutions have followed for many years. But rather than adjusting to a new model of doing business when the economy starts to recover, the reliance on tuition revenue has created a "new normal" for higher education funding that is simply not sustainable.
Many Americans have begun to believe that a bachelor’s degree is now the financial equivalent to a high school diploma of ten years ago. However, the most important message that must be disseminated is that with a college degree, graduates are more likely to obtain higher quality and more well-paying jobs. According to College Board, college graduates with bachelor’s degrees have a 61% higher earnings potential than high school graduates.
Historically, higher education was originally created in Greece in the sixth century BC to impart knowledge to the elite and the clergy. It later expanded to medicine, philosophy, mathematics and the study of the nature of humanity and the universe. Through the centuries, higher education has maintained the imparting and expanding of knowledge as one of its primary functions, but what has changed is the characteristics of the students. Today, higher education prepares individuals to think critically, analyze, and draw conclusions to solve problems in an ever increasing global society. Liberal arts degrees, for example, teach these skills, yet a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts does not lead immediately to a high paying job. Therein lies the dilemma for higher education. Does higher education continue to educate students with a centuries old model or does higher education change to meet the needs for our society?
The dilemma institutions face, as they continue to raise tuition and fees at record levels, is that attendance will become out of reach for an increasing number of students, especially minority, first-generation, low-income students, which will diminish dramatically their chances of completing a degree. Horace Mann, the great education reformer of the 19th century, once said, “Education … is the great equalizer…” I am a perfect example of this phenomenon.
One of the primary assumptions in our society is that a higher education degree leads to a good paying job. However, not all college degrees lead to an immediate career and a good paying job, yet increasingly the public and more specifically politicians are expecting colleges to produce larger numbers of job-ready graduates. The challenge facing higher education is to move away from the ancient model of educating for enlightenment and changing the paradigm to meet the needs our society in the 21st Century. College and University presidents, particularly in the public sector, must get together and re-invent the university for the 21st Century. If not, students will vote with their feet as they are starting to do now.
The National Center for Education Statistics reported that there was a 2% drop in the enrollment of undergraduates in colleges and universities across the country from 2010 to 2012. Additionally, the U.S. Census Bureau reported a decline in college enrollments in the fall of 2012 by half a million students compared to the previous year. According to Census Bureau data the biggest drop was among older students, those 25 and older, and among white students who saw a decline from 67% to 58%. Surprisingly, Hispanic and African American students did not follow the trend, but rather their enrollments increased during the same period, from 11% to 17% for Hispanics and from 14% to 15% for African Americans. More recently, the Chronicle of Higher Education related that college enrollments this past spring semester decreased by 0.8% for the third year in a row. This is compared to a 2.3% decline over the previous one year period. The biggest drop, 4.9%, occurred among four-year for-profit colleges compared to 9.7% decline last year, and at two-year public colleges, which fell by 2.7%. Thirty-seven states saw enrollment declines, while 13 states reported increases.
One logical assumption is that the drop in college enrollments was precipitated by the number of high school graduates not going on to college. The U.S. Department of Labor reported that indeed fewer high school graduates were going on to college last year: 65.9% in 2013 versus 66.2% in 2012. The drop; however, was only 3 tenths of one percent. While this is minimal, it does not account for the larger drop in college enrollments.
Today, the public and politicians expect colleges and universities to provide an education that leads immediately to a good paying job. College administrators can no longer expect students and parents to incur debt to fund an education that in many instances leads to uncertain career opportunities. Higher education has been steadily pricing itself out of the market in the minds of Americans. Data from the National Center of Education Statistics indicate that the cost of college (tuition, fees, and room and board) rose 40% at public institutions of higher education and rose 28% at private non-profit institutions during a ten-year period, 2002 to 2012. According to an August 15, 2012 Bloomberg article, “college tuition and fees have surged 1,120%… since 1978, four times faster than the increase in the consumer price index.”
Nationwide, colleges and universities have gotten so expensive creating a perception that the pursuit of higher learning is no longer as valuable as in past years. U.S. News and World Report, in a recent article, suggested that while tuition prices at public four-year colleges are growing more slowly than they have in more than 30 year, the fact remains that tuition has dramatically outpaced other consumer goods. For example, from 2003 to 2013 college tuition grew nearly 80% while Medicare grew 43.1%, Food and Beverages 31.2%, Housing 22.8%, Men’s Apparel, 6.9% and Women’s Apparel 5.6%, as compared to an increase in the Consumer Price Index of 26.7% during the same ten-year period.
The dramatic increase in college costs has been due in large part to the recession and a weak economy, both at the state and national levels; dramatic cuts in state funds to public higher education institutions; and drops in enrollments, due to the scrutiny of the value of higher education. Inside Higher Ed recently reported that there has been a 7.6% drop in state appropriations for colleges in 2012, the largest decline in a half a century. Forty-one of the fifty states cut their spending for higher education from as little of 1% in Indiana to as much as 41% in New Hampshire. In the last five years spending by states nationwide is down 28%. All but two states, North Dakota and Wyoming, cut funding for their institutions of higher education. Thirty-six states cut higher education funding by more than 20%, eleven states have cut funding by more than one-third, and two states, Arizona and New Hampshire, have cut their higher education spending in half. At the federal level, budget cuts have impacted research programs, student support and financial aid programs and many other programs that support students who attend our institutions of higher education.
In response to these budget cuts, colleges and universities have raised tuition to make up the difference. Over the last 25 years, the share of public university revenues coming from tuition and fees has climbed steadily to 47% this year, from 23% in 1987, according to a March 6, 2013 article in the New York Times. Moreover, college administrators, due mostly in response to pressure coming from legislators and governors, have begun to freeze tuition and fees, a move that unfortunately is not sustainable, given that the other costs of doing business will not freeze. As colleges raise tuition costs, the anticipated effect is a potential drop in enrollments. To ameliorate this effect, colleges have discounted tuition by providing scholarships and other forms of student financial aid, a practice that private, high-priced institutions have followed for many years. But rather than adjusting to a new model of doing business when the economy starts to recover, the reliance on tuition revenue has created a "new normal" for higher education funding that is simply not sustainable.
Many Americans have begun to believe that a bachelor’s degree is now the financial equivalent to a high school diploma of ten years ago. However, the most important message that must be disseminated is that with a college degree, graduates are more likely to obtain higher quality and more well-paying jobs. According to College Board, college graduates with bachelor’s degrees have a 61% higher earnings potential than high school graduates.
Historically, higher education was originally created in Greece in the sixth century BC to impart knowledge to the elite and the clergy. It later expanded to medicine, philosophy, mathematics and the study of the nature of humanity and the universe. Through the centuries, higher education has maintained the imparting and expanding of knowledge as one of its primary functions, but what has changed is the characteristics of the students. Today, higher education prepares individuals to think critically, analyze, and draw conclusions to solve problems in an ever increasing global society. Liberal arts degrees, for example, teach these skills, yet a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts does not lead immediately to a high paying job. Therein lies the dilemma for higher education. Does higher education continue to educate students with a centuries old model or does higher education change to meet the needs for our society?
The dilemma institutions face, as they continue to raise tuition and fees at record levels, is that attendance will become out of reach for an increasing number of students, especially minority, first-generation, low-income students, which will diminish dramatically their chances of completing a degree. Horace Mann, the great education reformer of the 19th century, once said, “Education … is the great equalizer…” I am a perfect example of this phenomenon.
One of the primary assumptions in our society is that a higher education degree leads to a good paying job. However, not all college degrees lead to an immediate career and a good paying job, yet increasingly the public and more specifically politicians are expecting colleges to produce larger numbers of job-ready graduates. The challenge facing higher education is to move away from the ancient model of educating for enlightenment and changing the paradigm to meet the needs our society in the 21st Century. College and University presidents, particularly in the public sector, must get together and re-invent the university for the 21st Century. If not, students will vote with their feet as they are starting to do now.
Monday, July 28, 2014
A Win for Affirmative Action? The Federal Appeals Court Decision in University of Texas at Austin Case
Recently the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit made big news on behalf of affirmative action in college admissions by upholding the University of Texas at Austin’s right to continue to use race in its undergraduate admissions. The Austin based university actually uses the “top-ten percent” plan, when essentially guarantees admission to the Austin campus to any student in Texas who graduated in the top 10 percent of his or her graduating class. The assumption is that since Texas continues to have segregated schools and in some areas of the state minority enrollments are well over 90% in K-12 schools and institutions of higher education. Case in point is the Rio Grande Valley area in south Texas, which is predominantly of Mexican origin.
The decision came on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year, which ruled that public colleges could, in fact, continue to use race in admissions, but only if the race based admission policy meets a narrow tailored goal or need of the university and the state.
A key issue, besides the top 10 percent plan, was the university’s desire to create “critical mass” among minority students through a process called race-conscious holistic review. However, less than 20% of the class for 2008, the year in question in this case, was evaluated and presumably admitted via the race-conscious holistic review process. In 2007, UT-Austin admitted approximately 6,300 freshman and this past fall they admitted 7,300 freshmen. Based on data from the university’s Office of Information Management and Analysis for the fall of 2013, Hispanics make up only 19.1% of overall student enrollment and white students 48.4%.
According to the recent publication by Susan Combs, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, “By 2020, the Texas Hispanic population is expected to outnumber the White population….” thus making Texas a minority-majority or better stated a Hispanic-majority state. According to 2013 U.S. Census data, the state is nearly 40% Hispanic and in some cities in Texas well over 50% to 90% Hispanic. And it will only get better, or worse depending on your perspective, by the year 2040 state demographers predict that the Hispanic population will grow to 18.8 million (53%) and whites will grow to 11.5 million (32%). In 1980, whites made up 66% of the state population and Hispanics 20.4%. Herein lies the crux of the matter, whites don’t want to give up their overwhelming majority share of the resources they currently enjoy.
Based on many years of collecting national data on college-bound students, Hispanic and black students score significantly lower than white students on standardized college admission tests such as the American College Test (ACT) or the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). In the UT-Austin case for the 2007 entering class, the average SAT score for Hispanics was 1155, for blacks 1073 and 1275 for whites. Nationally, data reported by the National Center for Educational Statistics for 2011-12, the average SAT scores (Critical Reading and Math scores combined) for Hispanics was 913, for blacks 856 and whites 1063. The fact is that standardized college admission tests are not race neutral, but that’s a subject for another time.
Shouldn’t Texas and for that matter the United States of America be educating a larger percentage of our minority students, at the very least, equal to their percentage in the population of Texas or the USA? Our country was founded by immigrants and build off the backs of immigrants. Minorities and immigrants are increasingly becoming the future workforce of Texas and the USA. Should we not provide them with a better education? We know that workers with more education make more money. The future workforce will of course support our retirement plans, pay into the Social Security System, pay taxes and, if highly educated, that translates into more money into the state and federal coffers.
The key compelling issue I feel is sometimes missed in the debate is that race-conscious admissions allow the state to level the playing field. We know from many years of collecting data that Hispanics and blacks perform lower on standardized tests compared to whites. Hispanics and black students in this country do not have the same advantages as white students. So, why should Hispanic and black students with lower test scores not be admitted to universities? Shouldn’t public universities enroll students in proportion to their representation in the state population? After all, UT-Austin is a public institution of higher education and supported by state funds. Hispanics and blacks pay their fair share, just like whites, of taxes to support the university. 19.1% Hispanic student enrollment at UT-Austin is hardly considered a fair, much less reasonable, share relative to the nearly 40% Hispanic population in Texas. This continued to keep Hispanics back in the 1980’s. Can one consider the decision handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeal a win for affirmative action? I don’t think so.
The decision came on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year, which ruled that public colleges could, in fact, continue to use race in admissions, but only if the race based admission policy meets a narrow tailored goal or need of the university and the state.
A key issue, besides the top 10 percent plan, was the university’s desire to create “critical mass” among minority students through a process called race-conscious holistic review. However, less than 20% of the class for 2008, the year in question in this case, was evaluated and presumably admitted via the race-conscious holistic review process. In 2007, UT-Austin admitted approximately 6,300 freshman and this past fall they admitted 7,300 freshmen. Based on data from the university’s Office of Information Management and Analysis for the fall of 2013, Hispanics make up only 19.1% of overall student enrollment and white students 48.4%.
According to the recent publication by Susan Combs, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, “By 2020, the Texas Hispanic population is expected to outnumber the White population….” thus making Texas a minority-majority or better stated a Hispanic-majority state. According to 2013 U.S. Census data, the state is nearly 40% Hispanic and in some cities in Texas well over 50% to 90% Hispanic. And it will only get better, or worse depending on your perspective, by the year 2040 state demographers predict that the Hispanic population will grow to 18.8 million (53%) and whites will grow to 11.5 million (32%). In 1980, whites made up 66% of the state population and Hispanics 20.4%. Herein lies the crux of the matter, whites don’t want to give up their overwhelming majority share of the resources they currently enjoy.
Based on many years of collecting national data on college-bound students, Hispanic and black students score significantly lower than white students on standardized college admission tests such as the American College Test (ACT) or the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). In the UT-Austin case for the 2007 entering class, the average SAT score for Hispanics was 1155, for blacks 1073 and 1275 for whites. Nationally, data reported by the National Center for Educational Statistics for 2011-12, the average SAT scores (Critical Reading and Math scores combined) for Hispanics was 913, for blacks 856 and whites 1063. The fact is that standardized college admission tests are not race neutral, but that’s a subject for another time.
Shouldn’t Texas and for that matter the United States of America be educating a larger percentage of our minority students, at the very least, equal to their percentage in the population of Texas or the USA? Our country was founded by immigrants and build off the backs of immigrants. Minorities and immigrants are increasingly becoming the future workforce of Texas and the USA. Should we not provide them with a better education? We know that workers with more education make more money. The future workforce will of course support our retirement plans, pay into the Social Security System, pay taxes and, if highly educated, that translates into more money into the state and federal coffers.
The key compelling issue I feel is sometimes missed in the debate is that race-conscious admissions allow the state to level the playing field. We know from many years of collecting data that Hispanics and blacks perform lower on standardized tests compared to whites. Hispanics and black students in this country do not have the same advantages as white students. So, why should Hispanic and black students with lower test scores not be admitted to universities? Shouldn’t public universities enroll students in proportion to their representation in the state population? After all, UT-Austin is a public institution of higher education and supported by state funds. Hispanics and blacks pay their fair share, just like whites, of taxes to support the university. 19.1% Hispanic student enrollment at UT-Austin is hardly considered a fair, much less reasonable, share relative to the nearly 40% Hispanic population in Texas. This continued to keep Hispanics back in the 1980’s. Can one consider the decision handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeal a win for affirmative action? I don’t think so.
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