The often-sensible Tacoma News Tribune Editorial Board has weighed in on the University of Washington's recently-announced plans to drop its fusty old, quantifiable "Admissions Index" next year, in favor of something the U is calling "holistic" admissions. Now, in addition to GPA and test scores, all admissions will include consideration of overcoming poverty, participation in extracurricular activities, artistic achievements, work experience and community service. The TNT warns:
The concern here is that all admissions decisions will become more subjective, perhaps more flavored by the constellation of biases derided as “political correctness.” Some have already accused the UW of trying to smuggle race back into its admissions process in an end run around Initiative 200, the 1998 measure that forbade race-based preferences. That’s a reasonable suspicion, given that the UW has already been trying to persuade the Legislature to relax I-200.A more fundamental concern, though, is that “holistic” decisions governed by a faculty committee will tend to produce a student body fashioned in the faculty’s own image, or at least one that reflects its own cultural and political values. For example, would an applicant who spent her summers working for Republican causes really have the same chance of admission as another applicant who spent his summers working for Democratic causes, all other things being equal?
Higher education’s notion of “diversity” has been criticized as a preference for people who look different but think the same. For all its faults, the Admissions Index has done something appropriate for a public university: Each year, it has brought in a new tide of highly capable students who haven’t been screened for conformance with the faculty’s more subjective values. The UW must explain how its new system will accomplish the same.
I guess I'm just another insenstitive white guy, because I have a real problem with the idea that a minority kid with lower academic performance, from a lower-income background, should be accepted ahead of a non-minority kid with a stronger academic record, from a higher-income background. These bonus points for having lower-earning parents smack of white racist, or at least classist, condescension. Let the low-income kid truly transcend their upbringing not by "artistic achievement" as a turntablist (below), but by scoring high on academics and winning admission on merit. With the lower-income parent(s) spurring them on to make the grade. 
Otherwise, we'll see even more of the special remedial courses now already prevalent at state universities for new admittees lacking basic skills in reading, writing, math and science. Of course, the focus on "academic record" means that a GPA from high schools must actually mean something these days - another reason SUBURBAN AND Seattle Public Schools have to jack up expectations, de-politicize and standardize the curriculum at a serious college-prep level. At least WASL and SAT scores can actually separate the wheat from the chaff. As opposed to Tupac-inspired verse.
I have yet to see a proposal that works better than traditional admittance methods to determine whether a student is academically, emotionally, and financially ready for University. If it's not broken, don't fix it...and it's not broken.
Just another lame attempt at social engineering by ultra liberals.
Posted by: dl on October 17, 2005 12:53 PMPosted by: C. Oh on October 17, 2005 01:01 PM
But what really bothers me are three things.
1) That some admissions bureaucrat, steeped in the deeply left ideology of our higher education institutions will be making the admissions decisions based on whatever they determine is "worthy." What's worse is that this could change year over year. And potential students would never know what they wanted, and would be forced to participate in a crazy load of politically correct extra curriculars to try and get over whatever arbitrary bar was set for that year.
2) What about asians and other non-white minorities, who otherwise fit the academic and merit based standards. If their race is ignored, will we see a sudden drop in the admission of high academic achievers across the board, and what does that say for the university elites who so often pander to diversity?
3) And most troublesome is the community service requirement. We have a word for involuntary service requirements, slavery. No student should ever have to choose between activities that they love such as student government, sports, photography, academics, or other extra curriculars and involuntary service that they may not want to perform and that may take away from their studying and SAT preparation and reduce their freedom to excel as they see fit. Involuntary service is a direct product of a collectivist political ideology that subordinates the people to the state. In our country it's the other way around, the state is subordinate to the people. Community service requirements are a dangerous back door to increased statism.
Posted by: Jeff B. on October 17, 2005 01:36 PM**********************************
How's this for a blatant violation?
The law is pretty straight forward:
"The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting."
Unless I'm mistaken, restricting grants to "the Latino community" is the very definition of a violation of the law.
Help me to understand how it isn't such a violation. And if it is a violation, what are you going to do about it?
LCC grant means free health care training for Latinos
By Hope Anderson, Longview Daily News
Oct 10, 2005 - 08:37:13 am PDT
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Lower Columbia College recently won a $50,000 grant to offer free health care training to Latino students.
Health care, one of the college's fastest growing programs, has few students from the Latino community, which is Cowlitz County's fastest-growing minority group.
To draw more Latino students to the field, LCC will provide free introductory courses to selected students. The classes, part of the college's Allied Health Programs, will cover basic skills needed for a variety of health care jobs, such as a medical office worker, nursing assistant or caregiver.
The grant, awarded by the Washington Health Foundation, will cover tuition and books and will help with child-care and transportation expenses.
"We were very excited to get the grant," said Helen Kuebel, LCC's nursing program director. "I'm hopeful that the word will go out into the Latino community that there are many support systems in place ..."
The program will prepare students for better-paying jobs or for more advanced training, such as the college's nursing program, Kuebel said last week. The curriculum prepares entry-level workers to meet the National Health Care Foundation Skills Standards, she said.
The program also is open to workers now employed in health care who may want to upgrade their skills, Kuebel said.
The school is targeting students in Woodland and Cathlamet, but any Latino student is welcome to apply, Kuebel said. Basic math and English writing skills are needed.
Kuebel did not have a specific number of students who would be accepted.
The classes will be offered in Woodland and at LCC for the winter quarter and in Cathlamet and possibly at LCC for the spring quarter, Kuebel said.
The college partnered with the Cowlitz County Health Department, Woodland's Community Health Center and Cathlamet's Columbia View Care Center for the grant.
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AN ACT Relating to prohibiting government entities from discriminating or granting preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin; and adding new sections to chapter 49.60 RCW. Top
Next
BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.
(2) This section applies only to action taken after the effective date of this section.
(3) This section does not affect any law or governmental action that does not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin.
(4) This section does not affect any otherwise lawful classification that:
(a) Is based on sex and is necessary for sexual privacy or medical or psychological treatment; or
(b) Is necessary for undercover law enforcement or for film, video, audio, or theatrical casting; or
(c) Provides for separate athletic teams for each sex.
(5) This section does not invalidate any court order or consent decree that is in force as of the effective date of this section.
(6) This section does not prohibit action that must be taken to establish or maintain eligibility for any federal program, if ineligibility would result in a loss of federal funds to the state.
(7) For the purposes of this section, "state" includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the state itself, any city, county, public college or university, community college, school district, special district, or other political subdivision or governmental instrumentality of or within the state.
(8) The remedies available for violations of this section shall be the same, regardless of the injured party's race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin, as are otherwise available for violations of Washington antidiscrimination law.
(9) This section shall be self-executing. If any part or parts of this section are found to be in conflict with federal law, the United States Constitution, or the Washington state Constitution, the section shall be implemented to the maximum extent that federal law, the United States Constitution, and the Washington state Constitution permit. Any provision held invalid shall be severable from the remaining portions of this section.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. This act shall be known and cited as the Washington State Civil Rights Act.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. Sections 1 and 2 of this act are each added to chapter 49.60 RCW.
Take "minority" out of that sentence, and you'll get something many people do agree with. I'm not under the impression that the UW will be taking race into account.
Posted by: Ben Schiendelman on October 17, 2005 01:49 PMThe curriculum at the UW, in many different academic fields, is getting so watered-down that students who "graduate" from there won't be able to get a job in their desired field because they won't be qualified despite achieving a degree.
Boring personal anecdote here. When I went there for nearly two years to get my Communications/journalism degree in 00 and 01, the majority of my fellow "journalists in training" went on to become very highly educated members of the service industries (broad but accurate generalization).
With the exceptions of myself (who quit early after being hired by a paper) and a handful of others who had the appropriate last names larger papers were looking for, 90 percent or more of my fellows failed to find a job at a paper because the communication program there is garbage.
I'm not sure what the ratio is with the other schools at the UW, engineering, pol-sci, anthropology, etc.
But in my opinion the UW, with a few exceptions, just doesn't provide the return on the dollar future members of the working class need in order to get real jobs today.
... but if the accepted students have a highly disproportionate lack of white males, then it is obviously the scam that it is intented to be.
I think what Fred is saying is, as long as every racial or gender group's quota is met, then Fred will be happy. It's not about merit, it is about justice.
Am I right?
(Blech!)
What I was trying to say (and hopefully this time I am able to make myself clearer) is that kids that have had to have a job during highschool to support their family (or what ever) and still get good grades etc. that it should be taken into account when that person is competing with someone who had nothing else to do but study. The poor kid was accomplishing more, and therefore more merit. Unfortunately this is another subjective item like the essay on why you want to attend the university.
If this is truly to help these kids who had work etc. on the side that it will not end up that minorities are predominately accepted in this system. PC is trying to redifine words so that "poor" and "black" are interchangable. That is just PC - Pure Crap. So my statement was trying to say that if there were an approximate proportion of white males, then I would believe that the program was intented to help poor - in its original sense - kids. As I think the implementation of the program will basically have no whites, never mind white males, that it is intended purely to get around I200.
Personally I don't even think that race should be asked on any form, as it should be irrelevant. Hopefully this has clarified my position, though you still may not agree...
Posted by: fred on October 17, 2005 03:11 PMThis is a comparison of extremes, but background does show something beyond the letter grade. It should be considered based on circumstances, which race has nothing to do with.
Posted by: fred on October 17, 2005 03:33 PMThe question here is whether the state should be involved in distributing money based on race at tax payers DIRECT expense. The foundation can hand its money to whom ever they so desire, as you said. But they are asking for our taxes to set up an organization to distribute it based on race.
Posted by: fred on October 17, 2005 03:38 PMThe hope was that the holistic method would take into account strength of curriculum. I'd rather have a student who tries the hard stuff than one who cruises.
But I suspect that my hopes will be dashed. This is just another way to keep the best and brightest out of the UW.
Posted by: Janet S on October 17, 2005 04:30 PMDivide! Divide! Divide!
Fred, I kind of thought that is what you meant, but your words did come out awfully kind to quotas. I was about to say that admissions should be blind, but you know, they never have been and never will be. The problem is, admissions used to be focused on merit in the academic record, as measured by test scores, GPA, schools attended and courses taken. Hardship cases were considered, but it was based on recommendations of the "hardship scouts" out in the communities. This all makes sense to me.
What has changed is the definition of meritorious. Bottom line is we do not trust the admissions office to subjectively measure merit, according to mainstream conservative values. It quickly dissolves into a quota for underrepresented minorities, which is what I200 was about. No, we do not trust the UW.
Posted by: huckleberry on October 17, 2005 04:41 PMI'm not so sure. The language of the act doesn't provide an exemption for grants from non-profits. Regardless of the source of the funding, there is no doubt that the school is administering this program, a program that appears to me to be, on it's face, the very discrimination I-200 was supposed to eliminate.
This program requires meeting the same criteria for entrance into the health program as any other student. The sole determinant seems to be one of race.
If non-profit funding is a loophole acceptable to the tenets of I-200, then it would seem to me our more leftist friends would be driving freight trains through it.
Posted by: Terry on October 17, 2005 05:34 PM...
The Network for Excellence in Washington Schools (NEWS) is prepared to take whatever action is necessary – including suing the state – to ensure that all students receive equal opportunity toward a well-rounded, high quality
education. Initially, the group plans to monitor Gov. Chris Gregoire’s Washington Learns study to ensure it adequately addresses school funding
needs.
NEWS includes school districts, the state PTA, school employee groups, special education advocates, civic organizations and groups representing communities of color.
The news conference and rollout is set for 3 p.m. Oct. 18 in the Stevenson
Elementary library, 14220 NE Eighth St., Bellevue. Speakers include Bellevue School District Superintendent Mike Riley,
Washington State PTA President Linda Hanson and James Kelly, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle
...
Just thought you might want to know what the establishment education folks are doing. I just love the idea of suing the state, so we can give lots of public money to lawyers.
Posted by: Janet S on October 17, 2005 09:15 PMIt is interesting that those in the latter group are always accusing others of having unconscious biases and preaching about these biases need to be guarded against, even attacked. But, these same people are also those that would like to take a university admissions process and make it a fundamentally biased one in which subjectiveness and biases predominate.
Unfortunately, in the state of Washington, this group seems to have won out a long time ago. They are on a steady march to creating something entirely out of character with what our founding fathers had in mind. And, that seems to be exactly the point of their actions.
Posted by: BananaLand(aka Iguana) on October 17, 2005 10:19 PMWhat I see here is a matter of funding not admissions. We're not talking about hispanic only classes. Just scholorships to hispanic students who are admitted and choose this curriculum. But I'm not an attorney, I'll let them take this on. The original topic of tossing grades and admission tests for a "holistic" subjective admissions process by the U is of much more concern to me.
Posted by: Bruce Welder on October 18, 2005 10:39 AMNow put away the old record player, stop the vandalsim with the spray cans, get out your books and learn MATH.
Posted by: Scott C on October 18, 2005 10:43 AM
http://www.uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=3879
http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2005/ARWU2005_Top100.htm
Posted by: Brad on October 18, 2005 01:48 PMCurrently, there is a 70% FAILURE RATE among students taking the WASL test! The UW had better not be too selective....
Posted by: Deborah on October 18, 2005 04:15 PM