1. Considering the increasing number of minority students who are graduating college with degrees in the past two decades, what reasons can you ascribe to this significant change?
2. Because of the noticeable decline in prevalence of “liberal arts educations” in colleges around the country, many students are choosing not to major in Humanities courses. Do you think this is a result of a more financially centralized mindset among college students, or an overall change in societal expectations regarding a college degree?
3. The focus on race in college admissions has been a driving force in the admittance of many students. Colleges are aware of the statistic that on average white students have higher scores on SATs than black students. Do you believe that this statistic is actually causing some black students to perform worse than they could, because of stereotyping?
4. The changes in the University of Michigan’s application process have put into place application essays that help to better acquaint the admissions officer with the applicant. However, is it possible that these essays are actually making it more difficult for the applicant to demonstrate their personality and drive, because of the lack of preparation of certain applicants for writing such essays?
5. Do you believe that the drive for more ethnic diversity in higher education is driven by moral or progressive ideals, or by a more money-driven mentality?
6. Some colleges admit students who do not have credentials that are up to par, thereby putting them into a situation where they perform sub-optimally. (This is not the fault of the student, since they were not necessarily prepared for what was to come.) Some of the students with this backstory end up not graduating, thereby increasing the prevalence of non-graduates in their minority. Is it possible that affirmative action is actually partially hurting minorities?

1.Because of money issues, students from low-income families are going to school later (1/3 of undergraduates), which is correlated with lower graduation rate. Is this lower graduation rate a correlation or a causation of the fact that those who defer for a year tend to be coming from low-income families?

2.Why is it that students who enroll in 2 year colleges are, in theory, meant to continue on to 4 year colleges but very rarely do so? Are all the access issues a function of money?

3.College does pay off, according to Attewell-Lavin. Is this only for public institutions in which tuition is cheaper?

4.Justice Rehnquist argued that affirmative action is actually a quota system and is unconstitutional based on fact that this critical mass criteria isn’t being uniformly applied, and based on fact that there is almost equal amounts of students getting accepted as there are applying. (And that other colleges don’t use this policy and manage to be diverse.) Is he implying that those who are accepted aren’t qualified and are just being accepted based on race? Other colleges that manage to be diverse – is this because of where it is situated? Are there other factors at play here?

5.Justice O’Connor said that her decision (Grutter vs Bollinger) wouldn’t be needed in 25 years because it shouldn’t be a problem at that point. So is she saying it is not in the best interests of equality but is a necessary evil so that minorities can have greater access to higher education? In which case, it isn’t really about “critical mass” of minorities on campus benefitting the school, is it? Or isn’t it?

6.Yale (and others) recently opened up minority-only scholarships to all students and this is part of a trend to get rid of need-based scholarships. Why is this happening? What forces are at work here? Does anyone really think need-based is no longer necessary?

7.Now, Michigan College uses essays and not points and the essays have a lot to do with diversity – Is this a valid system that evaluates applicants successfully? What other options did Michigan have?

8.The article says that post-graduate people were strongest opposition to Proposition 2 – why do you think that is?

9.To say that without affirmative action, there would be immediate discrimination against blacks, implies that this rule was only ever to increase access, even thought colleges state it’s for diversity which is educationally beneficial. Is this a shifting of policy from educational value to value based on equality. Wasn’t this a bit fuzzy to begin with? Was it always like this but thinly veiled?

10.Texas found other way to boost minority enrollment – by considering things other than race, like taking top 10% of the every high school class.Another idea is to add preference for students who have overcome discrimination or prejudice. How will they assess this? If in essay format, students will learn to lie and write what needs to be said, even those who have nothing to say on the matter. Another idea is to look at socioeconomic background. Is this feasible? Is this the solution we’ve all been looking for? If yes, why aren’t more people doing this( Like University of CA)?

11.U of Texas says its new policy will specify that Native Americans will have preference. Why isn’t anyone up in arms about this? Is this whole question really a racial issue, thinly veiled as one about rights etc?

12.California Community Colleges have really great access but they also have really poor completion rates, possibly as a result?

13.Shulock argues that CCC should be able to access the money it is getting from students, not so that it can raise tuition but so that it can be more responsive to their needs and get more direct benefits, but is it inevitable that by putting money in the hands of these colleges they will get greedy and do just that – raise prices?

14.Does affirmative action hurt minority students by giving them access to universities where they can hardly keep up and are bound to be isolated by their peers for being less intelligent?

15.To what extend is politics a driving force in universities? It seems that a lot of what happened in Michigan was happening to the higher education institutions as a result of outside forces.

16.U of Michigan might start using Descriptor Plus, a program that groups people (data mining). And they will give preference to people from groups that are known to have lots of diversity and low SES. This method is working and black enrollment went up 12% even as total class size shrank. But is this leading to more segregation by profiling and making race a big thing and talked-about?

1. Isn’t it more important to admit students that have been financially disadvantaged rather than students from minority backgrounds? Is it still true in today’s world that for students from certain ethnic groups are automatically disadvantaged?
2. The articles about the Fisher case constantly talk about the courts declaring that “student body diversity is a compelling state interest.” Why?
3. How big of a role do you think that government should play in deciding the admission policies of private and public colleges? Are they supposed to be autonomous?
4.  Should the residents of a state be allowed to vote on changing the admission process of a university like in Proposition 2? Again, what gives the people of the state enough power and knowledge to make a well informed decision?
5. As minority students admitted to colleges tend to be less prepared than their white classmates, shouldn’t more focus be put on their secondary education so that they don’t fall behind in college? Also, does this mean affirmative action is backfiring?
6. How much is a student’s race a factor in the admission decision of New York schools like NYU, CUNY, and Columbia?
7. Is affirmative action right because it gives a chance to minorities or because it increases the diversity of schools?
8. What does the decline in students declaring liberal arts major say about the new generation of college students?
9. Is it true that college degrees are not worth as much because of the downgrading of students?Has it become too easy to get in to college, in particular for minority students?

“The Other 75%” claims that students who were underperforming in high school, but attend college without finishing, make about 17% more per year than people who graduate high school but do not attempt to attend college. What can this wage disparity be attributed to?

“The Other 75%” states that Pell Grants and other federal aids are now merit based since they require recipients to maintain a certain GPA (usually around 2.5). This reading also states that the aid is not enough for nontraditional students to graduate within a 4 year period. Do you think that by raising the required GPA for federal or state student aid, and thus reallocating those funds for better performing nontraditional students, the time for BA completion can be brought closer to the 4 year expectancy?

According to the ACE Report, it is clear that the highest academically achieving ethnicities are Asian and White respectively, while the lowest achieving is American Indian. Aside from the incredible leap in achievements by women, it seems that increases in completion and success categories involving strictly ethnic comparisons is quite scattered. Is the call for greater minority access to education just a mechanism of political correctness, or do you think there is a legitimate need to increase access for these groups?

In the Affirmative Action article by Lederman, a majority of university presidents and others polled maintained that it is important to admit students somewhat based on Affiirmative Action. The justification is that the higher education experience and gain in overall education is significantly increased in an ethnically diverse environment. Do you think that this would prove accurate if the colleges were lowering their normal admission criteria to create this more diverse environment? Also, do you think that colleges should be able to use race/ethnicity as a factor in deciding whether someone is admitted or not?

1. Wouldn’t having education through the internet take away from the whole “college experience.” Don’t colleges improve the students’ work ethic, establish an atmosphere of learning and promote the establishment of friendship and give opportunity to network. All of these things aren’t provided in an online class.
2. Since technology will ensure that education will become more accessible in the future and the number of college graduates will rise, wouldn’t having too many people with a college education make it more competitive to get a job. Will having a bachelor’s be like have a high school diploma? If yes, will master degrees become the bar that people looking to get a good education need to obtain? Does this mean that more and more people will be in school till their thirties? What will this do to their lifestyle?
3. Do American colleges want a more educated international population? Wouldn’t these international students be competing with American students for jobs?
4. Does having some professors travel the world to teach take away from the integrity of the teacher-student relationship because eventually all the professors will only care about which college can pay them more?
5. Wouldn’t having more and more schools teach the hard courses and expecting that students learn the introduction course material themselves hinder the students that are struggling?
6. Cheating is a huge problem when it comes to MOOC. How can we limit cheating? The quality of tests given online can also be a problem as they tend to be multiple choice and for courses like organic chemistry and physics, how can a professor ensure that the students have learned the material?
7. Wouldn’t having a camera watch you while you take the exam hinder you and pressure you while taking an exam?
8. Doesn’t having too many students enrolled in the course, online or in-person, increase the competiveness and decrease the value of a degree because so many people have it?
9. How can you ensure that students in a course online are getting the same level of difficulty material as the students that are in the classroom?
10. Isn’t part of the reasons that some colleges are so intent on introducing MOOC’s is because the more students they have, the more money they will have? Doesn’t having this kind of mindset make colleges seem more and more like business rather than a place to gain knowledge?