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Show Open admissions policy... estimated 8.2 million students enrolled at colleges and universities at the beginning of this year's fall semester, nearly three times as many as in 1955. Nationally, more than half of those who complete high school now enter college, and in California with its large network of higher education? In fact is it the university's responsibility to take over where the high school failed? And if thP university assumes this task can higher education avoid beinn "high-schoolized?" ng Dr. Clifton R. Wharton. jr. by JULIE RAYL Special to the Chronicle Used to be if the numbers said you were cool; you were cool. If not; you were out. But the racket might be finished. The prospective college student's fate might not lie between 1 and 35 much longer. Or 1.0 and 4.0. Open admissions isn't exactly the going thing yet, but some colleges and universities have quietly beat the numbers. Open admission gives any student with the desire to attend college the right to do so, regardless regar-dless of his academic standing in high school. A high school diploma of some sort is still required but grade point and test scores don't "The concept of education as a privilege is disappearing and is being replaced with the concept of education as a right." of tax-supported institutions, the proportion is more than 60 percent. In Utah, one high school educator estimated that close to 80 percent of all high school graduates attend some sort of post-high school training. In just ten years the combined budgets of the country's institutions in-stitutions of higher education have multiplied more than threefold, to about $26 billion. Born the bulk State supported institutions have borne the bulk of this growth. As recently as 1950, enrollment in U.S. colleges and universities was evenly divided between private and public schools. But at the start of the 1969-70 academic year, nearly three quarters of the 7,300,000 students, then enrolled, pursuing count. The University is among these schools. "I feel that every high school graduate should be given the opportunity to go on to some sort of post-high school experience." said Franklin L. McKean, Dean of Admissions and Registration. Not for everybody "No, the university experience isn't for every high school graduate, but can we subscribe to the elitist concept that only those who demonstrate certain aptitudes can go on to the University?" he asked. The urge to go to college has . been so intimately woven into the president of Michigan State University, where open admissions was instituted on an experimental basis this year, believes in universal higher education. "The concept of education as a privilege is disappearing and is being replaced by the concept of education as a right." Dr. Wharton said. Other educators are afraid that our institutions of higher education will be reduced to one big screening process, instead of serving as the training ground for gifted students. Many believe there are far less costly ways to screen the nation's talent than by forcing millions through the undergraduate pipeline. "The B.A.," said Christopher Jencks of the Center for Educational Policy Research, "is a hell of an expensive aptitude test." Dean McKean thinks an ideal situation should be able to tell exactly who should go to college and who shouldn't. Decide for themselves "If we have the best of worlds when we look at the post high school experience," he said, "we could use whatever techniques of counseling are available to us and help these students decide for themselves if college is for them." "But here in Salt Lake Valley, if you don't go to college where have you got to go?" asks Dean McKean. These students are only 18 or 19 years old, McKean explained. The Salt Lake Technical College is bursting at the seams, and few if any of the graduates can find acceptable jobs. (continued on page 5) Open admission gives any student with the desire to attend college the right to do so, regardless of his academic standing in high school. American Dream that at times it is difficult to distinguish between the two. Millions of parents around the nation who never had the chance to attend college feel their children will have the best of everything if only the kids can go to college. Goaded on by promises that "college graduates make $10,000 a year more than the average high school graduate," American young people have flocked to the nation's universities. By any quantitative measure, the expansion of higher education in the United States has been a magnificent achievement. An bachelors degrees or higher were in state colleges, state universities or other tax-supported institutions. Most of these schools fight a daily battle against crowded conditions and declining operating budgets. Many of the country's professors are over-worked and often under-paid. The question is, can these schools now take in many under-prepared and possibly under-motivated students and still maintain high academic standards? Can they afford to direct any attention at-tention away from the average student to the poorly prepared and avoid lowering the over-all quality . 1972 " raises multiple questions ea relevant. The state has a huge monetary investment in the Phys,ca plant at the University, and Dean McKean sees no reason why students m both the liberal arts and the practical sciences" cannot walk down the same sidewalks Maybe there are many bright students who feel that they are being cheated," he said, "that their education, snot as high a quality as hey would like it to be. This kind of student thinks that if we eliminated i the guided studies students his education would materially change. It just isn't so. It's not going to change until this state is willing to pay to educate the top 25 percent of the high school graduating class." "We are a democracy and we owe all high school graduates an equal opportunity." said Dean McKean. "I am not willing to deny equal access to higher education to anyone." L from page 4) lare you goi todotha fid students with no S Jl nd yet want to go to ,T " i can't qualify under jSaardsr . he asked. sing snceforgood money Jr ;,ou don't go to college, you i: ' Taw ld ib' sald one , idiesstudent."lwantthe ? -,etorfe good money too , : ny educators think that helping a few students t ;:lrhaps wouldn't have had be overcome in a short time. Wash out danger But there is the danger that many of the marginal students will wasn out exiting from the system more embittered than if they had never entered it. An article which appeared in The National Review in January reported that 40 percent of the remedial students had failed to receive passing grades. Perhaps CUNY was not ready to deal with problems of these "I'm tired of University funds being used to give remedial asse classes so we can have a better ea3 hlednCathi0n? ' think S teaching ought to be done some Place oer than a university.' whetL063", McKean I"' whether we have the right to turn these students away simply because "we want to maintain the punty of the University." "Is there anything so sacred about liberal arts?" he asked Society trains us to think that Descartes is much more demanding deman-ding than operating a computer " Dean McKean believes that what is needed is a restructuring of what education is all about. Extending hiaher ednrntinn ''.fin tired of University funds Z )eing used to give remedial 2 classes to those who couldn't cut " fm high school' Open admissions may be just a way of extending higher education relevant to today's society. Education has never been able to provide formulas for solving society's problems, just the tools. Perhaps higher education can be re-oriented to consider both the computer and Descaretes tools for dealing with modern society. Dean McKean feels that especially in the state of Utah is this is - chance for a good income, of a admissions is only corn-ton corn-ton ilding the problems of the n0yed college graduate. And hat same time the oversupply of ion graduates is artificially big ( employment standards. of 'w Berg, A Columbia University for j'rjogist, in his book, "Education 5re dote: The Great Train Rob-en Rob-en ,(" contends that higher n9 ytion for too long has i,e graded as a means of getting Iad job. or Means of enrichment a '). Berg says he has no quarrel ,5 higher education as a means al -jiiching people's lives. But, by ;ll .-paring the mix of jobs in the ie aomy and the mix of .atonal attainments in 1967 he 'concluded that the U.S. is now -ing out more B.A.s than can be ls 'abed into the economy. (, ! Jireau of Labor statistics for the e rod from 1968 to 1980 indicate ,1 -ithe supply of college graduates j .ibe "roughly in balance with the ir iipower requirements." jiitthe report begs the question f ase, in its words, the projected , jsnd reflects not only the need , ji professional, managerial, and i'tr personnel who have I 'iiionally required a B.A. degree , - also reflects those jobs that require a college degree where 'e past one was not required, inshort, some of the demand will pent not true professional l but increasing educational jrtntialism" or the tendancy of lowing supply of B.A.s to create n demand. Station is becoming in-l''s" in-l''s" said another near-Mate. near-Mate. "There's a lot more of it 'y, but it means a lot less: oreyou get of it, the less it s in dollar value." ' despite the oversupply of graduates, students in Parts of the country are :1,3l,ing access to the without restrictions t demands made during . " City College of New York spring of 1969 forced New f officials to open City basis in the fall of 1970, ,;ars. earlier than planned. W is a system of ten four- Ke freshman class !!S?iup 16' over :i i eR?min9 class ml -7 Between $8 and ?w::dPd!!iorothereg"'ar W?JWd8d t0 handle th J" f students. ' nderethoman S,UdentS ad" w Z new Program, 40 "B nder,Standards Prevailing as, neariv h entire f ashman ctin ! squired remedial C ' which raised their ssorivo,,, LUNYs open ad- t nlh6 18 the premise that disadvantaged 6 ,native abilitv t0 , work- and that Iacademic handicaps can students. They were caught with an insufficient teaching staff not to mention that classes were being held in movie theaters because of the lack of facilities. But Belle Zeller, chairwoman of CUNY's Legislative Conference, reports that it is the faculty that is becoming most skeptical of the value of open admissions. "The faculty are telling me of their growing suspicion that open admissions ad-missions is a fraud." Many people outside of that university agreed with Spiro Agnew when he said that "CUNY is trading away one of the intellectual in-tellectual assets of the Western World for a four-year community college and 100,000 devalued diplomas." Like CUNY, the University also has open admissions. "But when you talk about opening up the doors at a city college like New York's and meeting the needs of the high school graduates in Salt Lake valley there is no comparison that you could consider valid." said Dean McKean. Different culture Dean McKean is convinced that the culture surrounding CUNY is very different from that of Salt Lake City. "I would have a difficult time administering a selective admission program here." he said. He believes that while education is not particularly stressed in the New York culture, it is a most significant thing in Utah. Parents here are very concerned that their children have the chance for higher education. At the University, a high school diploma of any sort is the only requirement for admission. Test scores and high school grade point averages are Ubed only to determine deter-mine a college predicted grade point average. Any student who predicts below a 1.8 GPA is admitted to the "guided studies" program where the student is given supportive courses in reading, math, English and study skills. All courses are for credit. About 20 percent of the entering freshman class is admitted under the guided studies program. Many pluses Far from feeling that these students are a drag on the academic standards of the University, Dean McKean is sure that these students "provide as many pluses for the University as minuses." But some of the so-called average students don't feel that way. One student expressed the feeling that the presence of these students creates an animosity in the studentbody. "I'm not considered either remedial or exceptional, so I don't qualify for any special attention at all. Instead, I'm shuffled into the great middle-class of students who can supposedly fend for themselves. them-selves. I get no personal contact from anybody except the computer." com-puter." said one junior student. |