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From: mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (Damballah Wedo)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.sci
Subject: Re: Clarification about college admissions
Message-ID: <641@mhuxr.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 1-Aug-86 09:09:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: mhuxr.641
Posted: Fri Aug  1 09:09:34 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 3-Aug-86 02:24:18 EDT
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Organization: The Poto Mitan in the Houmfor
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Xref: watmath net.women:11820 net.sci:1438

> timlee:
> The colleges and universities are more interested in increasing the NUMBER
> of female|black|etc students than in helping the female|black|etc students
> themselves.  What I was saying applied mainly to public schools which have
> various governmental agencies counting female|black|etc students.  These
> agencies (such as state legislatures which give out money) measure progress
> of female|black|etc students by the NUMBER ENROLLED at the school, NOT by
> how well they do there or how they become eligible for admission.  Thus, to
> please these powers, the schools must admit and enroll FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE
> as many female|black|etc students out of an applicant pool which contains
> only a few really qualified female|black|etc students.

Could you give some actual references: name of school(s), admissions standards,
graduation rates (for minorities, women and the student body in general)
and the like? It seems to me that if minorities and women are taking the
same courses as everybody else, they will derive similar benefits,
or are you arguing that basket-weaving ghettos are created just to keeep
them on campus? Don't you think THAT would attract some hostile attention
from the funding agencies you speak of?

> As I recall, this discussion about "Why aren't there any [female|black]
> physicists?" started out as a discussion about why there were so few
> female|black people within the group of people who were interested in
> science in general and physics in particular, with the result being that
> so few female|black people entering the applicant pool of physics majors.
> This is the root of the problem; without improving the female|black|etc's
> standing within the applicant pool (for whatever, including college
> admissions), one is just trying to conceal the problem rather than solve it.
> This means looking at the K-12 schools, at the home environment, and at peer
> influences (yes, I know about Cheryl's chemistry AP example).

But of course, any action taken by a school or university to encourage
women or minorities to enter technical fields will attract screams of
"UNFAIR!!!!! why are THEY getting all this attention and us white males
are not?" So please elaborate on what programs you are suggesting?
-- 
Marcel-Franck Simon		ihnp4!{mhuxr, hl3b5b}!mfs

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