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Obligatory GRE Thoughts

Considering the growing SAT/ACT Optional Movement in undergraduate admissions, why is there no similar GRE Optional Movement at the graduate level? All three tests are based on pretty much the same set of simplistic principles, but while undergraduate admissions boards are beginning to recognize this and respond appropriately, the same cannot be said for graduate admissions boards. What's with that?

I took the GRE earlier today and have to say it basically measures how much time one can dedicate to learning a long list of obscure terms in hopes that some of them show up on the test and the ability to do relatively basic math problems that are designed specifically to trick test-takers rather than measure quantitative abilities one might actually use in real life. Both of these things privelege those with the means to afford preparation books at the very least, and exorbitantly-priced classes and even private tutoring sessions if one is particularly well-to-do. Not exactly evening the playing field.

I'm actually very happy with my score, so this isn't coming from personal bitterness. But I find it a little ridiculous I should be so happy over something so seemingly arbitrary.

The Kids Are All White

I second Jason Zengerle and Dana Goldstein: Justin Elliott's new Campus Progress article on diversity and college newspapers is pretty good stuff. He writes:

It is a persisting state of affairs: College papers are the province of mostly well-off white and Asian students. African Americans and Latinos are underrepresented compared to the student body or absent altogether. Incidents like the one at K-State—every paper has its own stories of editorial blunders and community protest—occur with a regularity that should no longer be surprising.

Why do these editorial mistakes follow from the lack of diversity on staff? Because in campus journalism, where there are few press releases, word of mouth is everything. Thus when the campus paper is run by students from a certain demographic, coverage tends to mirror the concerns and perspectives of that demographic.

Later, he highlights the class-based realities of journalism that contribute to this:

Davisson thinks getting students from low-income families in the door is the easy part. The real challenge is making it possible for these students to rise within the organization. “Right now the system doesn’t make that very easy,” Davisson says, noting that Spectator editors have had to resign in recent years for financial reasons.

Beyond the university gate it’s hardly a secret that a career in journalism is more a “noble calling” and less a reasonably paid profession. In this unfortunate trend Patsy Iwasaki of the University of Hawaii, Diversity Committee Chair for College Media Advisers, sees yet another disincentive. “[M]inority students realize that only a few positions in media provide the large financial rewards and job status after graduation. Many students feel the pressure from their parents (especially if they are recent immigrants) to go for the standard fields such as business, law, medicine, engineering, etc.,” she writes in an e-mail. “Becoming a journalist might seem like becoming an actor to many recent immigrant parents.”

Goldstein aptly points out the degree to which this effects the journalistic field past graduation:

Students of color learn to mistrust the school paper, and then even those students of color who would otherwise be interested in journalism decide not to get involved. The effects trickle right up the journalism career ladder, especially in the magazine world, which provides fewer paid internships for college students and lower-paid entry level jobs. The result is heavily white applicant pools for programs like TAP's writing fellowship and The New Republic's reporter-researcher gig.

Again: Take a look.

Don't Let a Lack of Principle Stop You

"Should we eliminate academic tenure? Yes," writes Stanely Kurtz, although he immediately proceeds to note, "I have no principled objection to tenure. Under the right circumstances, it can function as intended, to protect the marketplace of ideas." However, since professors are all red and commies and feminists and queer theorists, it's clearly the wrong set of circumstances for him. He then proceeds to lay out an overview of his not-very-well-thought-through plan to eliminate tenure and replace it with simple contracts, as well as a side-plan to humiliate professors on TV becaues, well, he thinks they suck. He concludes:

More than anything else, the conversion of tenure from a protector of academic freedom into an instrument of ideological exclusion is responsible for the destruction of the campus marketplace of ideas. Tenure is the cornerstone of the campus political-correctness problem, and even beginning a serious effort to remove it would almost certainly shake up the entire academic system. The time to consider a serious campaign to eliminate academic tenure has come.

The revolution will probably be televised, because it's right-wing nonsense and people like that kind of thing.

The Chickens Come Home to Roost for Ward Churchill

The University of Colorado Board of Regents voted last night to fire Ward Churchill -- the "little Eichmanns" guy --  for  repeated and intentional academic misconduct. A May 17 Inside Higher Ed article details the specific accusations, some of which are quite blatantly inappropriate, including wholesale lies and flagrant plagiarism.

This case is a frustrating one, because it is absolutely true that right-wing forces went on a witch-hunt for the guy. The governor of Colorado has an anoying tendency to make pseudo-populist, get-him-out statements at random moments while University of Colorado administrators have been approaching this more systematically.

In the end, however, I think the university made the right decision. Churchill did engage in serious academic misconduct, even while it's true conservatives went after him for almost solely political reasons. But that fact alone doesn't make him a hero.

Ward Churchill is not a martyr for the left. He's a martyr for lunatics.