<p>[Growth</a> in numbers and quality | The Crimson White](<a href=“http://cw.ua.edu/2011/09/06/growth-in-numbers-and-quality/]Growth”>http://cw.ua.edu/2011/09/06/growth-in-numbers-and-quality/)</p>
<p>Take that Crimson and White debbie-downers. If you were ever a student like me, you know how frustrating the CW was to read. They are constantly whining about something. Not a lot of positive articles when I was there. I’m glad Mrs. Bonner decided to talk back.</p>
<p>Like the author said, wait until they post 2011’s numbers!!</p>
<p>ROLL TIDE!!!</p>
<p>SoRelle Wycoff must be embarrassed to have the Provost blow her thesis apart. lol</p>
<p>Wycoff: </p>
<p>*editorial written by SoRelle Wyckoff in the Aug. 29 edition of the CW. Ms. Wyckoff states that “there are ways to build a university without building numbers. Instead of lowering our standards to raise our numbers, how about we raise our standards and let the numbers fall in line on their own.”</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Dr. Bonner’s response:</p>
<p>*Here are some facts that the author should have researched before she came to her erroneous conclusions:</p>
<p>In fall 2003, the average ACT for the entering freshman class was in the top 25 percent. In fall 2010, the average ACT was in the top 15 percent. In fall 2003, only 505 freshmen ranked academically in the top five percent in the nation on the ACT, while 1,436 or one out of every four freshmen in the class entering in fall 2010 ranked in the top five percent nationally. In fall 2003, 24 percent of the freshman class was in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class; in fall 2010, 44 percent were in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class.</p>
<p>In fall 2003, 34 freshmen were National Merit Scholars. In Fall 2010, 128 members of the freshman class were National Merit Scholars. The University of Alabama’s fall 2010 freshman class ranked 6th in the nation among public universities in the enrollment of National Merit Scholars.</p>
<p>For the fall 2003 entering class, UA accepted 85 percent of the students who applied. Each year since that time, the percent of applicants who were admitted has gradually decreased. For fall 2010, only 55 percent of those who applied were accepted. The University of Alabama is the most selective institution in the state of Alabama.</p>
<p>In fall 2003, we did not have an Honors College. Today, Honors College provides an environment where the best and brightest students can thrive while enjoying the benefits of studying at a large public research university. In fall 2010, 1,357 freshmen (24 percent of the freshman class) and 4,673 undergraduates (19 percent of the undergraduate student body) were enrolled in Honors College.</p>
<p>While enrollment figures for fall 2011 will not be available until later in September, enrollment reached a record high of 30,232 for fall 2010. The entering freshman class, at 5,563 students, was the largest in UA history and included more than 1,395 students who had a 4.0 or higher high school grade point average. For the fourth straight year, the incoming freshman class embodied record-breaking academic quality. And, while the profile of the freshman class of fall 2010 was impressive, when the academic profile of the freshman class of fall 2011 is available, you will see that it is even more impressive.</p>
<p>The University of Alabama has produced a total of 15 Rhodes Scholars. And, in the past 25 years, UA has produced 34 Goldwater Scholars, 21 Hollings Scholars and seven Truman Scholars. UA scored a perfect four out of four with Goldwater Scholars in 2011 as all four UA students who applied were named recipients of the elite academic award.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>~snipped~</p>
<p>Ms. Wycoff must be quite the lazy person because it doesn’t take much time/work to look up past Factbooks to see that the student body’s stats have risen while enrollement has risen. </p>
<p>Is Ms. Wycoff on staff for CW? If so, she’ll never be a good reporter/writer. Fact-checking is the mainstay of good writing/reporting.</p>
<p>edited to add…</p>
<p>SoRelle Wyckoff is a junior majoring in history and English. Her column runs weekly on Mondays. SoRelle Wyckoff is a junior majoring in history and English. Her column runs weekly on Mondays.</p>
<p>Boy, she’s on the CW staff…bet she has to spend the day wiping the egg off her face.</p>
<p>There are more problems with Ms. Wyckoff’s article than just a failure to recognize the obvious facts about the improvement in the overall quality of the UA student body. The central thesis of her article is this:</p>
<p>"“Before President Witt accepted his current position at the Capstone, he served in administration at the University of Texas from 1973 through 1995. During the 22 years Witt served at UT, the student population more than doubled. Texas had a student population of 16,477 in 1960. By 1990, it had 37,152 students. . . . If Witt continues with his plans, the University of Alabama will see the same 20,000 student increase that the University of Texas experienced, in which Witt played a part.” </p>
<p>This is almost a classic example of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. From 1973 - 1983 Witt was the chairman of an academic department in the business school (the Marketing Department) – definitely not a position in which he would have had any ability to influence thought in the University about the size of the school. He then became an Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and subsequently Dean of the Business School. While in these roles it is possible he may have had some slight input into the ultimate size of the University, it is hardly likely that he alone drove any increase in the size of UT. </p>
<p>Witt left UT Austin in 1995 and became President of UT Arlington – a commuter school in the Dallas area – about the size of the University of Alabama. (Interestingly, during a part of Dr. Witt’s tenure at UT Arlington enrollment actually declined, but eventually recovered to previous levels by the end of his tenure there.)</p>
<p>More importantly three minutes of online research reveals that the facts she states contain a critical and misleading omission about the increase in size of the University of Texas. While the enrollment of the University of Texas was indeed 16,477 in 1960 and 37,152 in 1990 – she omits that the enrollment at UT had jumped to 31,880 in 1970 – while Witt was a mere Assistant Professor – and stood at 36,599 in 1980 – before Witt wielded any sort of administrative power outside of his own academic department.</p>
<p>Don’t mess w Judy Bonner! hopefully the student will learn from this and become a better journalist. No one is perfect.</p>
<p>Since the writer of the article is a student, who is still “learning”, I personally would cut her some slack. However, hopefully she learned a good lesson in journalism and history today about being accurate.</p>
<p>Doesn’t the CW have editors? I’ve never been involved in a school paper, but I would think that a story with as many issues as this one would have had a tough time getting past a decent editor.</p>
<p>Probably a student editor…</p>
<p>I realize that Ms. Wycoff is a student, but as a junior in college who very likely had high school paper experience, certainly she has been told numerous times to check her facts first. </p>
<p>Anybody who’s written a school essay knows to check facts first.</p>
<p>CW does need to clean itself up. Nearly every week there are embarrassing typos/grammar mistakes in the paper. Who is minding the store? </p>
<p>When my kids’ high school paper (teacher was a PhD!!!) routinely put out issues with typos and glaring mistakes, my older son began red-lining them on the way home from school. Within 15 minutes the paper would have red marks all over.</p>
<p>Finally, I took a bunch and showed him to the principal…explaining that it only took 15 minutes for a high school sophomore to find these mistakes…so what the heck was the teacher doing??? The teacher was not allowed to teach the newspaper class again.</p>
<p>While Dr. Bonner’s editorial response was well worded, its main message- that the University is growing in academic strength- is pertinent, but doesn’t address the infrastructural issues that Alabama is facing as it grows. A poster on the CW site put it well:</p>
<p>"Meanwhile, for those of us that have to suffer the excessive population growth both on campus and around Tuscaloosa, the fact that UA has 15 Rhodes Scholars is of little comfort. Both myself and that girl from Annapolis you personally went to visit in order to recruit to UA both have to wait in a line out the door at Fresh Foods only to eat standing up because there aren’t enough tables. When UA is nothing but a giant, generic suburb of Tuscaloosa, at least I’ll know the administration is sleeping easy because we have seven Truman Scholars.</p>
<p>Numbers don’t tell the whole story, and shame on you for thinking that’s enough."</p>
<p>A bit harsh, sure, but I think that the poster is getting at the true conflict here. The academic integrity of the University isn’t in much risk, but its culture/social life may be- and the ever-increasing crowded-ness here certainly isn’t helping.</p>
<p>Oh, and SoRelle Wyckoff doesn’t show much writing ability in her piece. The same themes have come up in the CW’s pages innumerable times before, in much more developed pieces- the weekly deadline must’ve gotten to her.</p>
<p>The opinion editor is a Sigma Chi- take that as you will.</p>
<p>Rather classless, IMO, for a dean, let alone the de-facto president of the university, to go after a student, but what to expect from the sister of a congressman, no less.</p>
<p>That’s not say that Dr. Bonner doesn’t have the right to counter arguments that may be based on flawed premises - in fact, as an educator, that’s her duty. But she could have done so without calling out the writer in question.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>She had to call out the writer by name…she was responding to HER piece…not classless at all.</p>
<p>And when you throw yourself out there in an opinion piece, you don’t get the cover of “I’m a student, therefore don’t call me out if I throw out BS about the school. I’m untouchable”</p>
<p>If students don’t have enough seating during lunch, that’s a viable thing to write about …altho all schools have that issue during the 11-1 eating shift…It’s like the parking issue…a universal complaint.</p>
<p>I do think that the school needs another large dining venue towards the center of campus. Lakeside and Burke are too far away during the busy times of school. Or Fresh foods needs to have more seating added in some way…don’t know if something is possible in some kind of outdoor seating or someething.</p>
<p><strong><em>Both myself and that girl from Annapolis you personally went to visit in order to recruit to UA both have to wait in a line out the door at Fresh Foods only to eat standing up because there aren’t enough tables.</em></strong></p>
<p>Is it really this crowded? I’ve heard/read that parking is an issue, but you don’t learn on the tour or at the information session about overcrowding issues. How bad are the growing pains right now?</p>
<p>Classless may be harsh, I admit, for one of us to call out the author, but it is not far off so for somebody in a position like the the provost of the entire university. She has to hold herself to a higher standard than the random Joe Schmo. She could have easily made it clear who she was referring to without being explicit about it. Now, it sounds like she’s personally rebuking a student for daring to have an opinion that doesn’t shine a positive light on the administration (at least in my opinion).</p>
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<p>Fresh Food is crowded during lunch time, there’s no way around it. But it was built a long time before Dr. Witt’s expansion program began - it’s simply not designed for a university the size of UA. That would be problem, but there are other dining halls on campus, specifically Lakeside Dining Hall. Fresh Food just has a reputation for having better food than Lakeside and Burke dining halls, which is why students knowingly put up with the crowds. Really, the problem is that Lakeside’s food is sketch.</p>
<p>A lot of facilities at UA are simply too small for the university at it’s current size, which is why there are buildings being built left and right. The overcrowding issue was a LOT worse 3-4 years ago before many of the new facilities came online. </p>
<p>The current problems areas are the Rec Center and Ferguson Center. The new northern residence hall will have a rec center to serve students living in that area of campus, which will take pressure off the Rec Center. The Supe Store in the Ferg is scheduled to be doubled in size. I would personally love to see an entire new student center be buillt from scratch from the area currently occupied by the Ferg and the Student Services Center.</p>
<p>As feenotype mentioned, much of the overcrowding is that students flock to specific areas at certain times of the day. I only go to the Ferg to check my mail, which is in the basement of the building away from most of the traffic (the lines at the Post Office caused by USPS not staffing enough employees at the beginning of the semester is a different issue that’s out of UA’s control). The best way to avoid lines at popular places is to go at unpopular times eg lunch after 1PM. Unfortunately, this plan doesn’t work for the many students who have classes at that time.</p>
<p>OK, so I am hearing the the main issue is crowding during lunch. And maybe parking. Funny that is the same thing that my son’s high school is complaining about! And two of the hospitals I work at have the same issues. Of course I am in DC frequently, and I never plan to have lunch between 11 and 1 because I would spend my whole time in lines at restaurants. If that is the only time I will have available, I take something with me instead of planning to pick something up. What I have not heard on here is that they are putting 3 students in dorm rooms meant for 2, and really major issues with getting needed classes (some, but not as horrible as threads for other schools). </p>
<p>All things considered, it sounds like for most situations UA has done a better job than most schools keeping up with growth. And it sounds like there is decent food at least one place on campus that is worth waiting in line for. That is not something you hear often on college campus!</p>
<p>Crowding at lunch is a universal problem at every campus.</p>
<p>When it comes time to make one’s schedule, virtually all universities encourage kids to try to put their “lunch break” at a time that is less popular. The dining venues are going to be less crowded if you get there by 11 am…or after 12:30 pm. The dining venues will be crowded from 11:30 am - 1 pm…that’s not surprising. Since Fresh Foods is in The Ferg, it will be the most crowded. </p>
<p>If you’re an early riser with a (ugh!) 8am class, then take your lunch break after your 10 -10:50 am class and head directly to a dining venue…be there by 11…don’t loiter and get there late at 11:30 or you’ll be faced with a full room.</p>
<p>If you’re a later riser with a 10 am class, then since you’ll be eating breakfast late, you can have a later lunch.</p>
<p>That said…any kid who goes to Fresh Food at High Noon when it’s hard to find a seat can take his meal “to go” and eat elsewhere. </p>
<p>It’s also possible that Fresh Foods needs to re-evaluate its seating to determine if there are other seating arrangements that would provide more seats. If I recall, it has a lot of 4-tops…which can mean 2 kids are occupying a table with 2 empty seats. Maybe less 4-tops and more counter-style seating or long-table seating where every seat can be used. </p>
<p>*Is it really this crowded? I’ve heard/read that parking is an issue, but you don’t learn on the tour or at the information session about overcrowding issues. How bad are the growing pains right now? *</p>
<p>the growing pains are not bad at all. Bama is a huge campus. This is not like the many other flagships that are putting 35,000+ kids on 500 acres. Now, that’s a nightmare! </p>
<p>This is life…wherever you go, you have to understand that there are key times when places will be more crowded. You use your head to minimize personal impact. Ever been to Disney World? What do all the tip books say…try not to schedule meals at peak times…zig while everyone else is zagging.</p>
<p>also…the first few weeks, the venues will be more crowded because EVERYONE is using their meal plans…WELL…after a couple of weeks, the new frosh begin wandering around and discovering that there are other eating options on campus (retail dining) and if they have time, they can eat on The Strip …and very soon less kids are eating in the dining halls.</p>
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<p>From what my daughter has experienced, even when there is a table with only one or two people sitting at it, the other chairs have been moved to another table where a larger group is sitting. So it sounds like to me, they need more seats period. </p>
<p>I also agree that adding another dining option (besides retail) in the heart of campus would help. If you are limited on time at lunch you don’t have time to go to Lakeside or Burke.</p>
<p>Daughter only has an issue with the crowd one day of the week so she will probably start taking it to go or pack a lunch.</p>