University Bribes Students to Retake SAT
This is also a great example of gaming a system without breaking the rules. In other words, it’s a great example of the difference between what’s legal and what’s right.
While Baylor’s Barry at first said the university was “very happy with the way [the program] turned out,” they must not have been too happy about being caught. They’ve promised to cut the program, saying it was a “goof.”
The story first broke in Baylor’s student paper, The Lariat. It didn’t die with that one piece, either. In a recent editorial, The Lariat points out that:
Ultimately, the decision about SAT scores is really just a symptom of a larger problem. As Baylor progresses towards its 2012 goal, it’s seems more and more intent on fulfilling as many of the imperatives [in the strategic plan] as possible. There is a serious problem with this mentality, though. We seem so anxious to reach these goals that we aren’t considering whether we’re actually improving as a university. In this case, we’re trying to improve the appearance of our student’s scores without actually attracting higher-scoring students.
In an effort to improve things, many business schools now make ethics courses a central requirement to get an MBA. According to Fox News religion correspondent, Lauren Green:
In the wake of the Enron collapse there’s been a bumper crop of ethics courses added to the business curriculum. The nation’s number one business school, Harvard began its much heralded and mandatory Leadership and Corporate Accountability course five years ago. . . . And Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School was established last year . . . for the express purpose of turning out business school graduates who’ll work to the corporate culture of greed to a culture favoring more socially responsible leadership.
But this assumes the problem is that people somehow need more knowledge in order to make ethical decisions. This is not the case. They need a moral compass coupled with some backbone. The Lariat’s insightful analysis shows it doesn’t take smarts and a degree to make the right decisions — it takes guts.
Someone, somewhere along the line, should have been able to stand up and say, “Um, boss? This SAT plan is wrong.” Maybe a memo to that effect will come to light, which would restore my faith in humanity.
Meanwhile, seemingly the last line of defense for Baylor’s reputation, the student editors of the paper hold out hope that should also be coming from the halls of the administrative offices: “With any luck, the damage done is not irreversible, and we can reaffirm our university as fair and ethical.”
College is expensive. If they can afford a $300 book credit, et al, why not just lower their prices to improve the value? Oh, wait, they’re trying to gouge the students for as much as they can. I forgot. What was I thinking?
O/T but I want to sprinkle this everywhere especially in light of Biden’s interview with the FL reporter.
Important distinction that NEEDS to be made over and over again between now and Nov. 4.
When Obama talks about reducing taxes for 95% of working Americans he is only talking about income taxes. He is not talking about payroll taxes which is where the funding for new programs will come from.
The nationalized health care plan the Dems are salivating about is a 7% payroll tax, the new retirement plan to replace our 401k’s is a 5% payroll tax, and the wage insurance is a 1% payroll tax for a total new tax burden of 13%. Add that to the current 6% Social Security payroll tax and the 1% (or more) Medicare payroll tax and we’re looking at a payroll tax burden in excess of 20% which is not subject to the deductions the income tax is.
No one is exempt from payroll taxes so Obama is simply lying.
Who’s behind this program? Sounds like ACORN.
This is why I rarely mention that Baylor is my alma mater. From when I attended thirty years ago to now, I am so disgusted with their decline. Good going guys at the Lariat. Now you know why some alumni don’t feel like donating to a university that so obviously has lost it’s moral compass.
shameful
I’m an alum of Baylor and I too have watched with dismay how “Baylor 2012″ has changed the face of the school I loved. I’ve been very vocal about the rush to become a research institution at the expense of the teaching, which had long been a standard at Baylor. Baylor has had 20,000 or more freshmen applications each year for the past several years (for only 3,000 or so slots) — and they can’t find high enough scores among those? It’s one thing for a student to want to retake the SAT in order to raise their scores – I did it when in high school – but to pay them is so obscene. Baylor, wise up. You’ve become something you were never meant to be.