<p>"In recent years Syracuse University has decided to make its undergraduate student body more “diverse” and “inclusive"code words for racial preferences that translated into a freshman class for the fall of 2010 that was 30 percent black and Latino.” Is there anything wrong with a freshman class that was 30% black and latino? 29% of our country is black or latino. This might be surprising to the author, but there are actually plenty of smart black and latino people.</p>
<p>“26 percent eligible for federal Pell grants…Pells are usually proxies for students of lower-tier socioeconomic status, many of whom are ill-prepared for college-level work, and, according to a 2009 report from the National Center on Education Statistics, drop out of college at higher rates.” Why does the author seem to hate pell grants? There’s also some nice misrepresentation of facts in here. Perhaps many people who qualify for pell grants aren’t prepared for college-level work, but those aren’t the people who are accepted to SU. The author also fails to realize that the national retention rate is different than the retention rate at SU, which is extraordinarily high for pell grant students resulting from the HEOP program.</p>
<p>“Minorities such as blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, and Pacific Islanders are disproportionately overrepresented in the Pell population.” So? I could’ve sworn I was signing up for an education, not a country club. Hmmm maybe the remedy to the problem we have with poor people being disproportionately minority races MIGHT HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH LETTING THEM GET AN EDUCATION so they can end the American poverty cycle. It’s almost like education is connected to jobs, which are then connected to increased socioeconomic status. Crazy idea, right?</p>
<p>The author then goes on to make some absurd comparison between SU and Harvard, as if the fact that “Syracuse isn’t Harvard” means that SU shouldn’t even attempt at having an interesting, diverse freshman class. </p>
<p>I like the direction Syracuse went this year where it made increases in BOTH diversity and selectivity, which should be the real goal.</p>