I’ve highlighted (in bright pink), in the article pasted below, points that are pertinent to this blog. The comments are from college staff and students. I’ve also highlighted the consequences imposed on students that haven’t towed the corporate line.
Charge the student that painted on the door with vandalism, rather than hate speech. Apparently CC students aren’t allowed to have an opinion different than others on campus or the CC’s administration. Same with wearing blackface to a party. It’s dumb, just like Prince Harry was dumb to wear a Nazi SS shirt to a party, but suspending them from school? Those cited in the article bemoan the homogeneity of the student body, yet the college throws out anyone that doesn’t behave according to someone’s arbitrary standard.
The students may be more diverse or heterogeneous than suspected. The college simply won’t allow them to show it.
There, you have my first blog. Please let me know your thoughts.
The Denver Post article can be read below or accessed on the web at:http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_9459310#comments
THE DENVER POST
DENVER AND THE WEST
College admissions miss "risks"
By Allison Sherry
Sometimes you feel like you lose out on a diverse opinion.
COLORADO SPRINGS — At a time when colleges and universities across the country will try nearly anything to keep students from quitting, professors and administrators at Colorado College are tackling the reverse.
At this school, perhaps too many students are staying. Between the fall of 2006 and the fall of 2007, 16 freshmen out of a class of 493 dropped out.
While top administrators say those numbers speak to the school's excellence, some faculty members and even a vice president worry that a 97 percent retention rate could be a signal they are not taking enough "risks" with their admissions.
"Even though we're getting students on paper who are better on test scores, a lot of us miss what we used to call the quirky student," said Claire Garcia, an English professor. "We're seeing fewer and fewer of those."
The elite liberal-arts college, tucked away in a verdant, historic corner of this sprawling city, has in recent years grown more exclusive.
It has halved the admittance rate from 54 percent of those applying to 26 percent for this fall's incoming freshmen. The number of students accepting offers for admittance has jumped from 22 percent just a few years ago to 46 percent this year.
All of which has helped CC climb the U.S. News & World Report rankings — a much-touted measure in the higher-education world.
The school has moved from 33rd in 2005, to 26th in 2008. Tuition, fees and housing are almost $50,000 a year, and more than half of the roughly 2,000 students pay full price.
"The supply-and-demand curve is overwhelmingly in our favor," said Mark Hatch, vice president for enrollment and dean of admission. "On the other hand, that doesn't mean everything is right. We're probably taking fewer profound risks than we . . . had in previous years."
As a result, the school will rethink the way it admits students this coming school year.
President Dick Celeste said that everything from eliminating ACT or SAT test requirements to looking for students with "unusual" commitments to leadership and community service could be considered.
While he hasn't made any decisions, Celeste said he wants to have the conversation. "I think we should be asking the question, 'What would make this a more interesting place?' "
At least on paper, CC students have become more impressive. One-fourth of the students admitted for the fall of 2008 were in the top 1 percent of their high school class. Four years ago, 19 percent were in the top 1 percent.
The median ACT score of the students has edged up from 28 in 2002 to 31 this year. In that same time frame, the verbal and math scores on the SAT have jumped from 1290 to 1350.
Yet professors and students worry this soaring achievement could undermine the school's reputation as a basking place for critical thought.
"I'm definitely afraid that the student body is becoming more homogenized and a little boring," said Tomi-Ann Roberts, a psychology professor who has worked at CC for 15 years. It is "really . . . a country-club atmosphere."
Alex Montgomery, who just graduated from the school, said he's frustrated that the school has strayed over to the elite. "The kids brought in have been more precisely chosen," he said. "Sometimes you feel like you lose out on a diverse opinion."
Some faculty members also wonder whether insensitive events during the 2007-08 school year are a sign the student composition has changed.
Last fall, four students were suspended after they wore blackface to a party. In December, anti-gay graffiti was scrawled on the dormitory door of a resident assistant. This spring, a feminist newsletter was satirized by a group of male students.
"I wonder if there's a connection between the demographic, the people coming from more homogenous schools and neighborhoods," Garcia said. "These students come to college with a very limited experience of diversity."
Roberts agreed.
"We want to teach smart kids, and we want to teach bright kids," said Roberts, who chairs the minority concerns committee. "Maybe the metrics we have available to us are not showing us that. The sparkle thing we're looking for is no longer there."
Vice president Hatch points out, though, that it is hard for a school — especially admitting 26 percent of its applicants — to turn down students that are "so darn good."
"Can you justify dipping down and taking somebody who may be in the top third of their class?" he said.
Top admissions offices across the country see more of the same kind of student — those with perfect ACT scores, those who spent every spring break building houses in the Third World, the 5.0 GPAs, said Dennis Jones, president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.
Even Ivy League schools are struggling to find bright students from varying backgrounds, he said.
"Quite frankly, they (CC) probably aren't prepared to deal with a set of students who don't have that set of characteristics. They've never had to be," Jones said.
Kaitlyn Hyser, who just graduated with a psychology degree, said her class was the "last hippie class to leave."
"We had people running around in crazy clothes. We were open to everything," she said. "Some of the classmen coming in, they're a little more perfect."
Allison Sherry: 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com Denver Post research librarian Barbara Hudson contributed to this report.
About the school
Started in 1874, Colorado College is a private liberal-arts school that has about 2,000 students from all over the world. Roughly 23 percent of the school's fall freshman class is from Colorado.
CC's block system means that students take one class at a time for several hours a day. Each class lasts four weeks, and many are held off campus in real-world "laboratories" — an archaeology class will go to a dig site in southeastern Colorado for a block, for example.
The school's "Vision 2010" plan calls for a boost in the number of enrolled students of color, who compose 22 percent of the 2008 fall enrollees.
CC president Dick Celeste has been at the helm since 2002. He is a former governor of Ohio and U.S. ambassador to India.
