CUNY'S ADMISSION POLICY UNFAIR!

t just isn't fair. The State University of New York (SUNY) admits students who did well over-all in their studies, but aren't quite up to snuff in some areas, and then it provides a means for them to make up for their deficiencies. So does practically every other university in this country, including such Ivy League institutions as Harvard and Yale. But the senior colleges in the City University of New York do not. In 1999, claiming that it needed to uphold standards, CUNY established an admission policy that bars students with remedial needs from the senior colleges.

Now, if you're saying to yourself, "But that makes no sense!", you're absolutely right. The only thing that explains it is this: the students who attend SUNY and most of the nation's colleges are predominantly white. Students attending CUNY are mainly students of color. This is a sheer case of racism being passed off as the need to maintain high standards.

On December 12^th or 13^th, members of the New York State Board of Regents will vote on whether to keep this policy in place or to change it. The outcome of their vote will have a huge impact on thousands of New Yorkers; yet, they have refused to hold a public hearing so they can listen to what the people most affected by their decision have to say.

Therefore, on November 26^th, CUNY Is Our Future and several other organizations held a "People's Hearing" at City College. Attended by students and faculty alike, many important points were made as individuals told of their own experiences. One thing that became resplendently clear was that these tests provide no accurate indication whatsoever of how well a student will or won't do in college. There has been nothing that shows they even meet the customary standards of test validity.

To begin the hearing, Dr. Bill Crain, professor of psychology at City College and co-chair of the PSC-CUNY Task Force on Open Access, laid out the background to the situation.

He explained that CUNY was founded in 1847 to provide educational opportunities to immigrants and working class students. For decades these students were practically all white. Then, in 1969, student protests brought about the Open Admissions policy, which provided much more access to people of color.

"The Open Admissions policy guaranteed every NYC high school graduate a place in a CUNY community college," Crain said. "It also eased their admission to the senior colleges' bachelor's degree programs. The policy gave thousands of students who had attended under-funded, overcrowded public schools their first chance for a first-rate college education, and it was considered a major victory of the civil rights movement.

"But," he continued, "the policy met with sharp criticism. Numerous public officials charged that Open Admissions let in too many freshmen with remedial needs and was ruining the quality of a CUNY education."

As Crain went on to explain, the evidence actually indicates that Open Admissions was a great success. CUNY created pioneering courses that became world renown, which enabled three-quarters of the remedial students in the bachelor's degree programs to complete their remedial work within a year. And then these students went on to graduate at nearly the same rate as the students who hadn't needed remediation.

Further, between 1983 and 1992 - the height of the Open Admissions era - 860 graduates of the City College campus earned Ph.D. degrees, which was more than those earned at its prestigious neighbor, Columbia College during that period.

But no matter how well the students did, Prof. Crain said, the criticism didn't stop. Then in 1999, under much pressure from Governor Pataki and Mayor Giuliani, the CUNY Board of Trustees banned remedial courses in all CUNY senior colleges - even though these courses are standard fare in senior colleges across the country. The board ruled that even if students have solid high school grades and met all the other admission requirements, they must still prove they have no remedial needs by passing skills tests in reading, writing and math.

A few students are able to obtain an exemption from these tests on the basis of their SAT or Regents exams. The only other exceptions are economically and educationally disadvantaged students in the SEEK program, as well as some non-native English speakers.

However, the policy affects over three-quarters of the freshman applicants. And it hurts students of color the most. Of Black and Latino applicants, 42% were turned away, 27% of Asian and 21% of white applicants were rejected. All of these students had met the regular admission requirements but were refused entrance solely because of this added layer of testing.

At the People's Hearing, students illustrated how unfair the testing is. For instance, Juan Poll, now a junior, was a National Honor Student with excellent SAT scores when he graduated high school. His parents didn't have the money to send him elsewhere, so he took the CUNY exams. He did very well on everything else but failed the math because he didn't know calculus. "It wasn't my fault I wasn't taught calculus," he said. "You work so hard in high school and then they say you can't get into college because you don't know calculus." He only got in by going all the way out to Staten Island for their comprehensive college program, which offers both associate and advanced degrees and therefore has remediation.

Tamara Toles, a senior in political science and philosophy, pointed out, "The word "remediation" should not be stigmatized as bad. All it means is that you are not perfect and need help in some area. I don't know a doctor, lawyer or a judge," she continued, "who's proficient in everything. You're not going to find anyone who isn't weaker in some area. Remediation has a stigma in this context where there is none in other places."

Councilman Charles Barron, Chair of the City Council's Higher Education Committee, was the day's guest speaker. He agreed with those who had said that all this supposed interest in maintaining "standards" is really a complex tool for keeping so-called minorities out. "'Standards' is a code word," he said. "Racism can easily be brought in under the pretense of upholding standards. They use the word 'standards' as though by lifting the bar they're going to lift the quality of education, which isn't the case at all."

He also spoke of the fact that what can be passed off as an insignificant marginal change, too small to take seriously, can really be the start of an important trend. "Marginal movement is what I'm really concerned about," Barron stated. "When you look at high school stats, Black students' graduation rate decreased by .03%; yet, their CUNY enrollment decreased by 1.5%. Whites students' high school graduation rate decreased as well by 2.5%; yet, their CUNY enrollment increased by 2.5%. These are small amounts, but we're looking at a trend here."

Barron said that the Higher Education Committee was holding another hearing on Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 10 AM, and that he hoped they would pack City Hall to demand that the State Board of Regents hold open hearings. Prof. Crain said, too, that among other things, CUNY Is Our Future was putting together a petition to the Regents protesting their behavior.

For further information about how to get involved, contact Bill Crain at (212) 650-5650 or billcrain@aol.com.

Donna Lamb can be reached at dlamb@gis.net.