College and university admissions have always been based on merit. Even after the introduction of Affirmative Action, all prospective students were still expected to submit transcripts, test scores, essays, and recommendation letters.
Now that the entire left is running headlong towards Critical Race Theory, that may be about to change.
This story is from a few weeks ago, but somehow it escaped our attention. The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) is now “reimagining” the college admissions process.
NACAC released this announcement on March 3rd:
NACAC Announces Commission on Redesigning College Admission and Financial Aid Through a Racial Equity LensInequality, access, and affordability are among the most pressing issues in higher education, limiting opportunity across American society. The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) today announced a national panel of leaders and researchers from across higher education, policy, and civil rights to develop specific proposals for reimagining financial aid and college admission systems and ultimately eliminating racial inequity in postsecondary educational access.The panel is the product of NACAC’s partnership with the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) and is made possible through funding from Lumina Foundation.Priority areas the panel will examine include:- The college-entrance pipeline, from student recruitment and college advising through the application process and admission criteria.- Postsecondary financial aid requirements.- The role of racial equity in postsecondary enrollment.“Our ultimate aim,” said NACAC Chief Education and Policy Officer David Hawkins, “is to go beyond theories of equity for postsecondary opportunity and make specific, actionable recommendations for policymakers that can produce changes at the institutional, state, and federal levels.”The panel aims to complete its analyses and release three sets of recommendations this summer: a guide for colleges centered around racial/ethnic inclusion, a related guide for postsecondary institutional leaders, and recommendations for federal and state policymakers for an equity-based college transition.
A writer named Dan Freeborn of the Freedom and Liberty blog claims to work in higher education admissions and saw this coming:
Ntl. Orgs. Commission to Reimagine College Admissions and Financial Aid Through Racial Equity LensI’ve been working in higher ed admissions and enrollment for eight years now and have been deeply invested in helping students navigate the application and enrollment processes to realize their educational goals. While I’m confident I hit my #wokebreakingpoint a couple of years ago, it’s becoming much harder to watch institutions being drug down into the chaos of the radical progressive agenda. The adoption of this ideology is changing the very core purpose of higher education and transforming campuses into centers of activism. They’re becoming less inclusive, encouraging self-censorship, and are establishing communities that threaten to exclude those that do not conform.There’s something deeply concerning going on in the college admissions world right now and no, I’m not talking about the prospect that Harvard is discriminating against Asians in the admission process. However, I’ll add that if that is happening, it’s disgraceful…A reminder that ‘equity’ is not ‘equality’. In the context of the current social justice movement and the meaning championed by the Biden administration, ‘equity’ becomes redistribution of social and economic goods aligning with the subjective characterization of demographics (not individuals). Achieving racial equity hinges on centering around the ideas of structural racism, intersectionality, racial identity development, and anti-racism and how white privilege is embedded in our systems. This is where the issue lies. This change is unequivocally steeped in the radical agenda that is hell-bent on dismantling American systems through the divisive narrative of the Critical Social Justice movement.
Interestingly, some proponents are taking a cue from Democrats and citing COVID to justify these changes.
Scott Jaschik writes at Inside Higher Ed:
Claudia Marroquin, director of admissions at Bowdoin College (who will become senior vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid on July 1), was a first-generation student when she attended the college.She cited student aid verification as an important issue. “Among the biggest areas of reform necessary is related to federal student aid verification,” Marroquin said via email. “The financial aid process is complicated enough and the verification process places low-income students in a position of having to prove their poverty unnecessarily to the federal government.”She also cited letters of recommendation as an area in need of reform. “On the application front, enrollment leaders need to continue to work to understand the student’s achievements within context while recognizing the biases and systemic structures that make the components of the application a hurdle,” she said. “While the pandemic has brought about changes to testing requirements, we should also be thinking about the items like letters of recommendation…Roger Ramsammy, president of Hudson Valley Community College, said policy makers in admissions need to remember the trends by race and ethnicity and gender. “Many studies suggest that COVID-19 has taken a greater toll on people of color, women and other minority groups,” he said. “We are now seeing even greater numbers of students who are underprepared for college as well as a rise in students who dropped out last fall. At the same time, there is a strong need for retraining and upskilling those who are now unemployed, a job that rest solely in the hands of community colleges.
So much of this is said to be based on access to financial aid. One simple solution would be for colleges and universities to lower their ever-rising prices, but of course, that’s not even a consideration.
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