The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

Faculty Senate wrong about ACT standards

During the Faculty Senate meeting on Tuesday, the Senate voted to increase admission standards as of fall 2006. I attended that meeting with hopes of speaking against the increases.

It was too much to ask of the Faculty Senate to yield the floor to a student for three minutes for public comments; yet they graciously kowtowed to the administrator in his posh suit. The Faculty Senate is so pompous and caught up in their own irrelevance that they alienate anyone who could be on their side.

Recruiting prestigious students involves more than raising admission standards, it will require changes in the classroom that Chancellor Wendler is not financially prepared to make. Conditions at a top research institution exceed those at SIUC: overcrowded rooms in Wham, broken overhead projectors in Faner and outdated kitchen facilities in Quigley.

Furthermore, raising standards cuts out a significant number of students; a disproportionate number of those students are from low socioeconomic or minority backgrounds.

If we truly desire to solve problems related to student apathy, high drop-out rates and low performance, we need to start by looking at our inequitable educational system, the manner in which we fund public education and the authoritarian nature of our high schools, which breeds dependency rather than personal responsibility.

Jennifer Killham

senior, university studies

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