Cheating Scandal in Higher Education
There is so much to say about this I don't know where to start.
The worst part for me personally is that what my colleagues and I do will be conflated with this crime.
I work in an access college. We have no prestige like a Yale or Stanford or UCLA, despite doing great work. We take everybody and put them through the boot camp of higher education. A lot don't make it; access institutions have lower graduation rates. We cost less--less than 20% of these prestige places. We don't have luxurious dorms. We don't have professors who appear on cable news shows and Good Morning America. We don't have Division I athletics teams and we don't have lazy rivers for students to float down when they should be studying.
We work hard. We actually teach. One of the first things our faculty have to learn is that our students are unique and require innovative teaching. (I wrote my dissertation on this, so I kind of know.) Most adapt and do quite well. I run a Thank-a-Teacher letter program and the letters are heart felt and inspiring about how our faculty make a difference.
Our students work hard. Most of them have part-or full-time jobs. Most are first generation and on Pell grants. Twenty-seven percent are Hispanic, most of them the first generation of immigrants and yes, some are dreamers, in a legal limbo. (But I don't ask.) Eighteen percent are over 25 and many have children they care for, or sick relatives. They don't have time to float down lazy rivers. They rarely go anywhere on spring break, because they use the time to work extra hours or take care of family or just plain get caught up on the real work of learning.
And let me say, the idea that college professors make high salaries is a myth.
Our students are great young people for the most part, and while some come from more upper middle class families, only two I know of are related to "celebrities" (athletes). The idea that their parents would have any clout in getting them into college is surreal to 99% of them. Of course, no one bribes college admissions officials to get their kid into an access institution. That sounds like a bad joke.
In fact, one reason I want to stay in the position I am in is that I have direct access to students through teaching and advising, and I would lose that in another position. It's too high a value for me to be present in their lives (although I imagine some would prefer I wasn't!)
My point is that we are not these people. But what we do will be devalued because of them. The cable news nuts (I'm talking about Tucker Carlson here, who has become increasingly mendacious in the short period I have been watching him, and now he's a voice in the background that amuses me with his outrage) will broadbrush all higher education when the vast majority of it is performed by people like me and serving people like our students, who see higher education in totally different terms than those whose privilege (and yes, I use that word) allows easy admission to the top schools.
Anywhere State College is not Yale. Ruralworld Community College is not UCLA. I'm proud to say that now. In the past I would have felt less than because of my institution's low place on the totem pole. Now I feel encouraged to do even greater work because we are not tainted with this criminality.
At the same time, I am angry that my work and my institution gets lumped in with those who would sell out. We don't deserve this. I wish the public could be educated that there is as strict a caste system in higher education than there is in India. Here I could go off into how the rules are different for an access institution versus a Vanderbilt or Yale, but I won't. The institutions themselves have privilege with accrediting organizations, not just the students. Perhaps that is earned to some extent, but these scandals (and the horrific ones about athletes, such as at Chapel Hill.
Finally, let me add that I've gotten a few laughs from Twitter's attacks on Lori Loughlin. I guess Hallmark Channel will scrap all her shows since she's going to be a convicted felon. There are some great gifs out there from Full House.
The worst part for me personally is that what my colleagues and I do will be conflated with this crime.
I work in an access college. We have no prestige like a Yale or Stanford or UCLA, despite doing great work. We take everybody and put them through the boot camp of higher education. A lot don't make it; access institutions have lower graduation rates. We cost less--less than 20% of these prestige places. We don't have luxurious dorms. We don't have professors who appear on cable news shows and Good Morning America. We don't have Division I athletics teams and we don't have lazy rivers for students to float down when they should be studying.
We work hard. We actually teach. One of the first things our faculty have to learn is that our students are unique and require innovative teaching. (I wrote my dissertation on this, so I kind of know.) Most adapt and do quite well. I run a Thank-a-Teacher letter program and the letters are heart felt and inspiring about how our faculty make a difference.
Our students work hard. Most of them have part-or full-time jobs. Most are first generation and on Pell grants. Twenty-seven percent are Hispanic, most of them the first generation of immigrants and yes, some are dreamers, in a legal limbo. (But I don't ask.) Eighteen percent are over 25 and many have children they care for, or sick relatives. They don't have time to float down lazy rivers. They rarely go anywhere on spring break, because they use the time to work extra hours or take care of family or just plain get caught up on the real work of learning.
And let me say, the idea that college professors make high salaries is a myth.
Our students are great young people for the most part, and while some come from more upper middle class families, only two I know of are related to "celebrities" (athletes). The idea that their parents would have any clout in getting them into college is surreal to 99% of them. Of course, no one bribes college admissions officials to get their kid into an access institution. That sounds like a bad joke.
In fact, one reason I want to stay in the position I am in is that I have direct access to students through teaching and advising, and I would lose that in another position. It's too high a value for me to be present in their lives (although I imagine some would prefer I wasn't!)
My point is that we are not these people. But what we do will be devalued because of them. The cable news nuts (I'm talking about Tucker Carlson here, who has become increasingly mendacious in the short period I have been watching him, and now he's a voice in the background that amuses me with his outrage) will broadbrush all higher education when the vast majority of it is performed by people like me and serving people like our students, who see higher education in totally different terms than those whose privilege (and yes, I use that word) allows easy admission to the top schools.
Anywhere State College is not Yale. Ruralworld Community College is not UCLA. I'm proud to say that now. In the past I would have felt less than because of my institution's low place on the totem pole. Now I feel encouraged to do even greater work because we are not tainted with this criminality.
At the same time, I am angry that my work and my institution gets lumped in with those who would sell out. We don't deserve this. I wish the public could be educated that there is as strict a caste system in higher education than there is in India. Here I could go off into how the rules are different for an access institution versus a Vanderbilt or Yale, but I won't. The institutions themselves have privilege with accrediting organizations, not just the students. Perhaps that is earned to some extent, but these scandals (and the horrific ones about athletes, such as at Chapel Hill.
Finally, let me add that I've gotten a few laughs from Twitter's attacks on Lori Loughlin. I guess Hallmark Channel will scrap all her shows since she's going to be a convicted felon. There are some great gifs out there from Full House.
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