Favoring men is not the problem … hiding the favortism is the problem
This article from the Baltimore Sun reveals how colleges will finesse this one — gender is just one of many considerations, they say. Fine. But the only indicator that matters is the admission rate. If after all those “considerations” you still admit men at far higher rates, what’s up?
Balancing a freshman class for gender is fine, at least from my perspective. How is that any different from favoring a trombone player or free safety? But when you obfuscate and pretend you don’t have to reach deeper in the application pool to find men you let K-12 schools off the hook for failing to educate boys. Something is going on in those K-12 schools, and the best way to bring pressure is to have colleges be candid about what they’re seeing in their application pools.
December 18th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Less qualified? If colleges would tell the truth, they would admit what every administrator and even some faculty know: that grades predict grades and predict nothing else. There is far too much that course grades don’t or can’t measure. the unpredicted factors range from nerve and initiative to good or bad luck.
What colleges should do, but often don’t, is take the students who can do well and really educate them. That means, at a minimum to teach them to think critically, to read widely, to be concerned about the state of the community and the world and to develop the practical skills they need to succeed in a constantly changing environment.