Donna Stern is an advocate for “By Any Means Necessary,” a pro-affirmative action organization. She stated that the Michigan ban on affirmative action through the support of 58% of voters was attributed to “white men voting to preserve white privilege.” She, then, compared the situation to the elimination of the Jim Crow laws, saying that if the electorate of Alabama and Mississippi was responsible the Jim Crow laws would not have been eliminated.  Does this statement imply that college admissions and Jim Crow laws carry the same legal consequences? Should the college admission process be concerned with same “rights” involved with Jim Crow? This made me consider the underlying principle of Jim Crow, which created the idea of “separate but equal.” Try applying that phrase the current issue, does affirmative action condemn “separate but equal” or does it promote it?

All of these readings discuss the different approaches used to promote student diversity, including race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and demographics. If all of these factors are being considered for an applicant, how much focus remains on academics and other related activities?

This idea of “critical mass” implies that a certain proportional student population be achieved to include minorities. According to supporters, this “critical mass” is needed to keep minority students from feeling isolated in the classroom. How is this to be effectively proliferated considering the various course offerings (all with different times/sections) and the different major choices and requirements for students? Do you think “critical mass” is better suited in the K-12 environment, where there is less variation in students’ scheduling and choices?

After reading about affirmative action and the various implications of it, how do you think this affects non-traditional students? How does affirmative action affect “non-traditional” schools, such as conservatories?

When the University of Michigan faced the challenge of adjusting the admission process, they decided to add an essay about diversity to their application. They hoped to use this to create diversity on their campus while adhering to the “legal” race-neutral processes. Not only does this occur at UMichigan but the 2012-13 Common Application included following question as an essay prompt option: “A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.” Recently the 2013-14 application reworded the questions and the “diversity” essay is not included. How does this affect colleges in their attempts to achieve diversity? Do you think students are capable to understanding diversity and effectively expressing it in an essay? Could placing the expression of diversity in an essay make it more difficult for lower-achieving students to define their diverse background to colleges?

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?

Discussion Questions

1-The article mentions that “online learning is gaining a firm foothold in universities around the world”, but is there a possibility that online learning will be the primary form of education for students in the future (and/or replace traditional learning higher education institutions)?

2- Do you think it is necessary for an institution to allocate a significant amount its budget into incorporating and promoting technological advances? Or do you think it is wiser for an institution to use more of its money on other areas such as keeping tuition affordable for students, financial aid, scholarships, research, hiring professors, student clubs/teams etc.?

3- The article mentions that in the coming years, universities will have a greater presence overseas to put education within reach of many more individuals all over the world. This seems very beneficial, but the growing number of incoming foreign students to higher education institutions in America can lead to an increased amount of competition. How can this effect students living in America? Will they have decreased chances of getting into the colleges/universities of their choice? Do you think the competition between foreign students local students entering institutions of higher education in America will become fierce enough, that limits will have to be put in place with regards to the number of foreign students admitted?

4- Since technology seems to be playing a large role in the future of teaching methodologies in higher education, will professors that are less tech-savvy have greater difficulty finding jobs? How important a role will the technology aspect play in the hiring of incoming professors?

5-Do you think online courses should be used as a supplement to face-to-face classes, or do you think they should serve as the primary method of education?  For some students online courses may be the only option (either they are working, nontraditional students, single mothers etc.), but will the fact that there is less face-to-face communication with instructors hinder their learning process?

6-How do we make sure that students are actually learning the material and are not cheating on online courses? If people take multiple online courses offered by different universities/institutions, who keeps track of their transcript and degree progress, and can their credits earned be easily transferred?

7. Is there really a way to measure how much a student “learns” from his/her institution of higher education? At the university of Michigan “The measure of achievement was based on a common time unit, and the accumulation of the set courses and time units

constituted a complete bachelor’s-level education,” do you think this is sufficient? Should exit exams be put in place (and even then, can that really test how much knowledge you’ve acquired? and is that a successful indicator of how you’ll do out in the career world?)?

8. Much public opinion calls for a wider variety of college courses more appropriate to the diverse interests of high school graduates. Online courses can provide students with the knowledge they so desire to study at their fingertips, but with the increase of online learning, is there still a way to ensure that students learn a common standard?

9. If the use of online education is to become a prevalent form of education in the future, what will these mean for faculty members that depend on teaching in traditional settings (in a college/university) as a means of their livelihood?

10. David Noble had mentioned in his 1998 essay “Digital Diploma Mills, Part II” that “in the wake of the online education gold-rush, many have begun to wonder, will the content of education be shaped by scholars and educators or by media businessmen, by the dictates of experienced pedagogy or a quick for profit? What’s your opinion with regards to this statement?

11. Why do you think it is that most of the largest online universities are for-profit?

Do you think that in the long run, online learning is a cost-effective, successful form of education to prepare students for life in the workplace? What does an online education offer to students that a traditional classroom-based form of education cannot, and vice versa? Do you agree that a hybrid programs incorporating online and face-to-face instruction may be the best form of education?

12. If students are solely engaged in online learning, it would seem that one of the downfalls would be that they have limited access to academic advisement/guidance from knowledgeable faculty members as well as less networking opportunities. Is there a way to incorporate this aspect into online learning?

13. If an institution does not offer any online courses, could this deter students away from attending the college/university? Overall, how large a role does the offering of online courses play when students are choosing a university/college to attend?

14. What role did the economy play in the growth of online courses? Do you agree with the statement, “As the economy improves, some predict a possible decline in online enrollments,” or do you think that the growth of online courses in the future will continue regardless of this factor?

15. Why is it that courses offered by MOOCs have more than three-quarters of students dropping out? Are the students truly being prepared sufficiently to apply their knowledge and skills that they’ve learned from their online courses to the outside world?

16. Are there courses that cannot be successfully taught through MOOCs? What are the current admission criteria for MOOCs? There is some movement towards elite MOOCs, do you think this is a good idea?

17. The “Ethics of MOOCs” article poses a good question: If an institution is successful in its bid for the institution accepting MOOCs for certain courses, will employers know who took the face-to-face course as who took the MOOC course? Will students in the MOOC course have access to the same services and be subject to the same course and university policies as their non-MOOC counterparts?

18. To help ensure that the person who signed up for a MOOC and has completed the work and taken the exam, should there be on-site testing put in place?

19. How do you solve the issue of giving credentials to MOOCs? Some people enroll is MOOCs for personal improvement and aren’t really looking for verification of content mastery, while others want the official credentialing to testify that they have successfully completed the course, how do we solve this issue?

1. “Sonoma State University’s Mr. Scalise adds: ‘Small campuses often cannot compete with larger universities when it comes to IT budgets, so we have to find other ways to differentiate ourselves, through niche offerings.’ What can colleges, that are not able to have a strong focus on applied research, offer corporations as incentive for partnership? [Economist Intelligence Unit (2008) The Future of Higher Education: How technology will shape learning.]
2. What unit can we use to measure and evaluate student learning instead of credit hour? [Shedd, J. M. (2003) The History of the Student Credit Hour ch 1 in New Directions for Higher Education #122.]
3. For whom are online courses the perfect match?
4. How expensive is the anti-cheating software used for online test taking? Students always find an innovative way to cheat and bypass the rules, is the amount of money invested in these software really worth it if there is a good possibility that they won’t work? [Eisenberg, A. (2013) Keeping an eye on on-line test takers. New York Times, 3/12/13.]
5. Have students who have completed MOOCs, learned and applied the knowledge and skills? (Have they actually learned anything?) [Cuban, L. (2013) “Irrational exuberance”: the case of MOOCs, http://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/irrational-exuberance-the-case-of-the-moocs/]
6. If MOOCs starting charging their students for access, do you think the number the students using MOOCs would increase, decrease, or remain the same over a given period of time? [Robbins, J. (2013) The ethics of MOOCs Inside Higher Ed, 3/25/2013.]
7. From 1993 to 2007 full-time administrators grew by 39% while faculty members grew by 18%. Moreover, spending on administration grew by 61% whereas for faculty it grew by 39%. Why are those in administration receiving a higher pay than those in faculty? Moreover, why is the rate of hiring administrators higher than the hiring rate for faculty members? [Essig, L. (2013) It’s MOOAs, not MOOCs, that will transform higher education. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 3/28/2013.]
8. “Bok’s assertion implies that there is generally too little reflection on pedagogy within the university.”  Other than using an online programs as the medium to teach, what are some other ways to better the quality of traditional higher education?  Why would faculty, who claim to believe that online is inferior to classroom instruction, actually recommend online courses to their students? [Stokes, P. (2011) What online learning can teach us about higher education. Ch 7 In B. Wildavsky, A.P. Kelly and K. Carey, eds. Reinventing Higher Education: The Promise of Innovation.]

1. Should students be “trained” to use computers and online tools in K-12 classes so that when they go to college they will have the same experience and knowledge?
2. Should institutions move in a direction where classroom setting is replaced by online classes at the convenience of one’s home or is it necessary to maintain a physical interaction with classmates and professors?
3. Is the funding for technology in schools too expensive of an investment considering that there is always something better out there after some time?
4. If an institution was to an entire class to be taken online, how would one stop cheating, plagiarism, or even know that the person registered for the class is the one taking the online course?
5. Do you feel that Ivy League institutions will be slow to act on the technology “bandwagon” since they have a model/ system that they have been following for years and years and might be hard for them to change?
6. Do you think that online classes will catch on to HE and that the courses will carry over and earn students credits in accredited institutions?
7. Are online classes more viable for for-profit institutions?
8. In one of the articles it was said that students could take a test on the first day of class and if they passed that they would earn credit for what they passed on and then take classes on areas that they showed they were weak on. This is much like a challenger refresher class that EMTs take and the model works there so what would be the drawbacks of integrating this model into HE?
9. If you could choose the model of education you were going to take, would you choose the traditional classroom model, the online model, or the hybrid model?
10. If an institution was paying for computers and technology to enhance learning, would you be willing to pay higher tuition to receive access to all of those things?

1. What are the precautions being taken to ensure that online courses are not “gamed” by students. With the lack of a professor, it is very easy to cheat on these tests. On the same note, do these online courses hold the same weight against university courses if there is an academic vulnerability?

2. If there is a greater shift to online learning, how will research and lab work be carried out? Will students have to go to a designated area to apply themselves? Will research become a “thing of the past?”

3. With free learning websites such as khanacademy, what is the benefit of enrolling in a MOOC? Is it the validity of having a professor give the lessons and grade? Will the MOOC business be threatened with free, open-source alternatives

4. One of the Chronicle articles states,
“Regardless of their initial level of preparation … students were more likely to fail or withdraw from online courses than from face-to-face courses. In addition, students who took online coursework in early semesters
were slightly less likely to return to school in subsequent semesters, and students who took a higher proportion of credits online were slightly less likely to attain an educational award or transfer to a four-year institution.” Are MOOCs just a trending phenomenon or do you believe that they offer a low-cost, educational alternative that is equivalent to a face-to-face college education?
Sub-Question: Are MOOCs just a business looking to get low-income students for low-cost prices, or are they genuine in quality?

5. The article by Thomas Friedman states, “We demand that plumbers and kindergarten teachers be certified to do what they do, but there is no requirement that college professors know how to teach. No more. The world of MOOCs is creating a competition that will force every
professor to improve his or her pedagogy or face an online competitor.” Do we actually believe this, or are professors less responsible for teaching in MOOCs? Without face-to-face interaction, a professor may also be able to get away with poor teaching. Furthermore, isn’t there already competition between colleges based on professor quality?