2008-08-27 - 7: 27 p.m.
I got an email mass-soliciting donations to Brown. I wrote back and said that although I immensely my time at Brown, I would not donate a dime until financial aid was extended to RUEs and transfer students. Now it seems Brown is further subdividing RUEs into those who attended college before and those who didn’t.
It’s apparently saying that those who attended college before (having already proved themselves in an academic setting) are just like transfers and hence ineligible for “universal” need-blind admissions. (The less-charitable might say that RUEs and transfers should be thankful to be treading the hallowed halls of the Ivy League, rather than some piss-ant place like Amherst or Duke or Tulane or – God forbid! – going to a state school like Berkeley or U. Michigan or UVA…)
So if Brown succeeds in further separating RUEs into those who’ve attended college before and those who haven’t and provides “universal” need-blind admissions to only the latter group I will donate 1 penny to them. If they extend “universal” need-blind admissions to all RUEs, that’s a step and I will quintuple my donation to 1 nickel. If Brown extends “universal” need-blind admissions to all RUEs and transfer students, as promised I will donate 1 dime. Only if they extend “universal” need-blind admissions to the international students also currently excluded will I donate whatever I can afford.
I’ve always been a bit wary of tying RUEs and transfers to international students, only because I felt internationals were not covered by U.S. law and could not be included in a legal case. The lawyer from the Department of Education confirmed this. However, he noted that while extending “universal” need-blind admissions to international students can’t be legally enforced, it’s just the right thing to do.
I should note that Brown could go a long way towards assuaging my anger in the short term at no cost by simply stopping touting need-blind admissions as “universal” when they’re not.
I’m just saying…
© 2008 Geoff Gladstone
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