Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (53774)	8/4/2002 8:17:41 PM
From: J. C. Dithers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Well, I guess you have to begin by defining "excellence" as it applies, in this case, to our higher education system. To me, excellence is all about the standards of a university, in terms of the caliber of its faculty, its record for producing new knowledge through research, its resources for learning, the quality of its teaching, and lastly the quality of the students it admits. These would amount to the amalgam that would distinguish a Harvard or an Oxford from the local community college. If you think of this on a global basis, the U.S. has enjoyed a world-class reputation for such excellence, which is why foreign students flock here ... to study medicine, engineering, business, or science. If I raised any of your hackles by mentioning the community colleges ... they have a valued role in our system, of a different sort. As their name implies, they bring higher education to the masses, catering to those who need part-time or night classes, vocationally-oriented students, and students who lack the credentials for a four-year college, for whom the CC's perform the function of a "prep school" or springboard for 4-year college admission. If you think of "excellence" of higher education in a rounded way, not just for the elite and the high achievers, then the universities, the CCs, and the myriad of smaller colleges constitute a system for bringing higher education within reach of all who desire it ... and do so in a manner of excellence probably not equaled by any other nation.. Getting back to the McWhorter article ... I think the more liberal admission standards, the recognition of the value of life experience as opposed to high grades, even the recognition and rewarding of a history of personal adversity, all have their place already in the CCs and in many colleges. What I object to is carrying these ideas to the university level (although there is obviously a great diversity in caliber, quality, and standards among the universities themselves). What McWhorter is focusing on in Berkeley, a university with a reputation in the first rank. What I don't think we should do is to jeopardize the highest level of our university system by watering down its admission standards or the quality of its students in the ill-conceived interest of some sort of feel-good social justice.