I remember how it was -- JR
London university that boasts of being one of the most diverse in the UK failed one year to admit a single white working class student, shows document
A university that boasts of being one of the most diverse in the UK failed one year to admit a single white working class student. The startling fact appears in a document detailing plans to improve access to SOAS University of London.
The document says the number of white undergraduates living in poor neighbourhoods that were recruited through the main UCAS admission round in 2017 was zero.
The disclosure will fuel growing concerns that white working class children, particularly boys, have become the education system’s forgotten dispossessed.
White pupils eligible for free school meals are half as likely as their peers from poor ethnic minority families to achieve strong passes at GCSE. They are also more likely to attend a failing school.
All ethnic minority groups in England are now, on average, more likely to go to university than their white British peers.
SOAS, where more than half of the intake is from ethnic minority backgrounds, describes itself as having ‘an exceptionally diverse student body’ and says its mission is to ‘recruit and teach diverse students’.
Yet its Access and Participation Plan for 2020-2025, which all universities must submit to the regulator to demonstrate how they will recruit and support under-represented groups, shows a worrying absence of white working class youngsters.
The recently-published document admits: ‘SOAS had zero acceptances (rounded to the nearest five) from white students from low participation neighbourhoods via the UCAS main scheme in 2017. (This excluded clearing and direct applications).’
Coming from a ‘low participation neighbourhood’ – one in which few youngsters go to university – is one of the main measures of disadvantage used by higher education.
Other universities in London have admitted very low proportions under the measure. Imperial College recruited 30 white applicants from poor neighbourhoods in 2017 – just one per cent of its intake.
Conservative MP Ben Bradley said the figures showed a drive for ‘diversity’ was leaving white working class communities behind.
‘Our institutions value diversity of skin colour more than background or experience,’ he said. ‘That’s a huge shame, but more importantly, it disadvantages the poorest. It’s simply wrong. On the plus side, I’m pleased that this is now being recognised, that these figures are gathered and looked at and that some institutions are trying to rectify things.’
A report by the National Education Opportunities Network (NEON) last year found that at more than half of institutions, less than five per cent of students were white and from areas where very few young people go to university.
Graeme Atherton, director of NEON, said its analysis of universities’ 2020-2021 access plans showed only four had specific targets relating to white working class students compared with 27 in 2019-20.
He said: ‘If they don’t feature, they are not a strategic priority and if they are not a priority, universities are less likely to do work with them.’
Founded in 1916, SOAS describes itself as the world’s leading institution for the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Alumni include Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the socialite Jemima Khan and former Conservative Minister Enoch Powell.
A SOAS spokesman acknowledged the challenges of attracting white, working class students but said the university had improved since 2017 and it was now working with schools in London, Sheffield and Northampton. The spokesman said a different measure of poverty, the index of multiple deprivations, showed SOAS’s intake of white disadvantaged teenagers rose from nine per cent in 2017-18 to 14 per cent the following year.
The Trouble with Aiding Students with Learning Disabilities
As college classes go online, one group of students is ignored: those with learning disabilities.
The Atlantic calls learning disabilities an “invisible disability” because they aren’t physically obvious. These disabilities can be detrimental to a student’s success if they don’t get help.
Students with disabilities aren’t rare; almost 20 percent of undergrads reported having one, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics. The increase is connected to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which mandated equal access to colleges for students with disabilities.
The passage of the ADA led to more programs and greater student access while raising awareness of students with learning disabilities. Disabilities that are protected now include emotional disabilities, cognitive disabilities, physical disabilities, and neurodevelopmental disabilities. Colleges have disability resource offices as well to help students.
Emma Albin, a senior at North Carolina State University, described her ADHD to the Martin Center as “out of sight, out of mind.” Focusing is difficult for her unless she’s stimulated or under pressure. That affects her self-motivation, which is made worse with online classes.
When she registered with the Disabilities Resource Office at NC State, they told her about the accommodations available for ADHD. She could get more time on tests and access to early registration, which helps her get smaller classes with more teacher interaction. It also helps students get a schedule that works best for them, time-wise. Emma cared most about avoiding online classes, which are now unavoidable as NC State has gone remote.
In summer 2020, the Association on Higher Education and Disability conducted a survey to understand student experiences and the barriers they face from COVID-19. The study concluded that “students with disabilities were more likely to experience difficulty with accessing the internet, technology training and support, course materials and assessments, as well as learning management systems and communicating with instructors,” US News reported.
When students with learning disabilities take online classes, being timed and recorded during tests stresses them out more. Emma stated that the testing center on campus can be used if students need accommodations, but rooms must be reserved in advance and it can be hard to schedule one ahead of time. Limited spots are available in the testing center, especially since COVID-19.
Not everyone is happy about the current rules for accommodating students, however.
In a prior Martin Center article, Garland Tucker, quoting professor Ari Trachtenberg, noted that: “Students without disabilities are potentially disadvantaged by these accommodations. It is inappropriate to give an objective test with a clearly delineated grading policy if some students get uncalibrated bonuses.” In addition, he argues that the intended beneficiaries of this legislation are actually being hurt. Disabled students are now receiving special accommodations in college that they will presumably not receive in the workplace.
An NC State junior who chose to remain anonymous told the Martin Center that they chose not to register with the Disability Resource Office for that reason. The stigma of receiving “special” treatment turns away many students from getting proper help. Students also may doubt the college’s ability to actually help them.
The concern over lackluster disability assistance isn’t an isolated one. According to the Hechinger Report, “special education students across the country reported low expectations in school, regardless of their actual ability level or future plans. The majority of those interviewed said that the problem often isn’t the fault of individual teachers, but a failure of the system.”
Those internal failures hold students back. While inconsistencies in higher education have always existed, the pandemic’s effect on higher education will make it harder for students to find the support that could help them graduate.
Nebraska Goes Beyond Bias Incidents and Embraces Thought Crimes
A reader who attends the University of Nebraska-Lincoln remarks on a new statement rfeceived from UNL:
I’m a graduate student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), and I would guess this type of thing is par for the course for many universities in the United States now, so it probably shouldn’t surprise me, but the language of UNL’s statement troubles me. The short of it is this: UNL has a system they call “TIPS” for reporting “bias incidents.” Today, they announced that they have updated the system to take reports about the “culture” or “climate” of the campus including things that make people feel “unsafe,” even if those things do not violate University policy in any way.
It says, “Most recently, the university has added a campus climate/culture option within its TIPS incident reporting system to capture broader issues. The new climate/culture option is intended for incidents that may not violate the university’s Student Code of Conduct or Title IX compliance regulations, but run counter to the university’s core values and beliefs. Incidents that discriminate, stereotype, exclude or harass an individual based on identity may be grouped within the climate/culture incident reporting option.” Later it says, “Kelli King, assistant vice chancellor for student affairs and leader of the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards [said] ‘We want everyone to know that the university takes these matters seriously and that it is extremely important to address incidents that do not align with the values of the institution’” (Source: https://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/gradstudies/11992/69805 ).
That seems like a very slippery slope. Students can now report other students for “incidents that discriminate, stereotype, exclude or harass an individual” or make someone “feel unsafe/uncomfortable due to an incident,” even if those incidents do not violate UNL’s own student code of conduct or federal law. But what does that mean? It is really unclear how UNL plans to address these incidents and what type of incidents require addressing. And, how does anyone know what does or does not “align with the values of the institution” if those values cannot be ascertained from what is stated in the UNL student code of conduct or other policy documents (since you can report actions that are not covered by UNL policy)? Additionally, these “bias incident” behaviors can even be unintentional according to the TIPS website itself: “A climate-based concern can include actions that discriminate, stereotype, exclude, or harasses anyone in our community based on their identity (such as race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, age, or religion). Concerns may stem from fear, misunderstanding, hatred, or stereotypes. Behaviors may be intentional or unintentional. Climate concerns may not classify as a compliance violation but do counter our core values and beliefs” (Source: https://www.unl.edu/tips-incident-reporting-system/ ).
Once again in that definition, UNL mentions its “core values and beliefs”, which I think can be found here: https://diversity.unl.edu/our-core-values-beliefs . There is some hope here, as in these core beliefs UNL states that it wants to “protect free speech and inspire academic freedom.” It also says that UNL “believe[s] in the freedom of speech, and encourage[s] the civil and respectful expression of ideas and opinions.” That sounds good to me, but I hope those are not just empty words on paper because it makes me wonder how their very broad “bias incident” reporting policy can be consistent with such a free-speech statement when it encourages reporting even unintentional “incidents” that do not run afoul of any UNL policy and does not say what incidents UNL deems worthy to address or how. I don’t know how anyone can read that type of broad and unclear language and just expect the university administrators tasked with responding to these “incidents” to act with deference to the ideals of free speech. That leaves way too many doors open for abuse of such a policy by those who react to expressed disagreement similarly to the people your reader wrote about in “The ‘Live Not By Lies’ Quickening” article.
Anyway, just passing along more of this troubling trend which I know is unfortunately not unique to the University of Nebraska, but as you know is popping up everywhere, even at land-grant institutions in very red states like Nebraska.
This is one of those “shocking, but not surprising” things. It gives tremendous power to students who wish to use it to punish anyone they don’t like. Students who have faithfully followed the university’s own written policies could still get into trouble if someone believes that the words or actions of another on campus make them feel bad.
How can a university allow itself to decline into something like this? There is no way a university can be what a university is supposed to be if people within that community can silence others with a simple accusation based not on any contestable evidence, but only on the basis of subjective feeling.
Earlier today, in Nashville, I was talking with a US-based Christian who spends a lot of time in Europe working on a particular human rights issue. She listened to my Q&A with Gabe Lyons today, in which I talked about Live Not By Lies, and what the experiences of Christians under Soviet domination has to tell us about our own time and challenges to basic liberties. She said that she wanted to cheer as I made my points. Americans, she said, simply don’t understand how fragile our liberties are, and how ideology is destroying them. If you have any experience with the former Soviet world, as she does, it makes all the sense in the world.
So, ask yourself: would you want to attend, or have your children attend, a university like Nebraska, where you (or your children) could find yourself in a world of trouble when someone of an approved Victim Class accused you of making them feel unsafe — not because of anything particular you said, but just because? What kind of crackpot ideology turns a university in a free country into a woke madrassa?
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/woke-nebraska-university-lincoln/
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