New college admission policy promotes diversity

The lack of diversity that is found within Georgia’s universities has brought about the creation of a tentative admissions policy known as the Georgia Promise.

Through this alternative admission policy, graduating high school students who have a grade point average in the top 10 percent of their graduating class shall be automatically admitted into an institution in the University System of Georgia, according to Senate Bill 221.

While this promise is fairly new to the state of Georgia, other states have already taken steps towards increasing the diversity within their state’s colleges and universities, through their own alternative admission policies.

With the possible implementation of this policy, many questions arise about the positive and negative impact of the Georgia Promise.

Janet McLachlan, Baldwin High School mathematic teacher, “suppose(s) that it could be a good idea, yet often good ideas can be construed.”

Though grade point average would be the sole factor deciding student placement under this policy, there are many other factors that could affect the outcome of this policy– such as school size, minority population and differences in what the top 10 percent GPA is from school to school.

There is only a slight difference between the percent of minorities present in Georgia and the percent of minorities present in the University System of Georgia institutions; however, the problem results in the uneven distribution of diversity among Georgia’s universities. Not every Georgia institution seems to reflect that of the state’s minority population.

With the issue not necessarily lying solely on the amount of minorities that are enrolling into college, it seems that the lack of diversity is due to which college/ university students are choosing to attend.

While many students may choose to look at location, university size and the availability of their major, it seems the issue of diversity has always had different persuading factors from some minorities’ point of view.

“My decision to attend this university was based on its diversity,” Kiara Jones, a GCSU psychology major said. “From the beginning to the tenth grade I attended a public school which was all black.”

Jones spent her junior and senior year at a majority white school. She felt that attending GCSU would be most like the real world. From Jones’ point of view, seeking diversity meant attending a college that had a population that reflected a majority that was not necessarily identical to her ethnicity.

However, not all minority college students have this belief about diversity. Lauren Mills, a junior who attends Spelman, a historically black college, has an alternative point of view about diversity.

“I have attended majority white schools from K-3 through my senior year of high school, but I always knew that I wanted to attend a school that made the minority in the real world the majority,” Mills said. “Diversity is great, but why should I have to attend a school where I feel like an outsider?”

Diversity is in the eye of the beholder, and Georgia’s promise for diversity may need to be regulated through the placement of the top graduates in specific colleges/ universities.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 17 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry