February 1 2012

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Wednesday Issue February 1, 2012 FRESNO STATE

COLLEGIAN.CSUFRESNO.EDU

SERVING CAMPUS SINCE 1922

Seminar examines California, Finland’s justice system California prison population directly affecting state universities By Stephen Keleher The Collegian Fifty years ago, the country of Finland and the state of California incarcerated their citizens at about the same rates. Since then, California’s prison population has grown five times larger, while Finland’s has been cut in half. On Friday, Mikko Aaltonen, a doctoral candidate at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and Fullbright scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Population Studies Center, came to the Alice Peters Auditorium to talk about the different ways crime and punishment are handled. Sponsored by the College of Health

and Human Services, Department of Social Work Education, the seminar was hosted by Dr. Kris Clarke, assistant professor. Experts from the Valley and the Bay Area also gave presentations and participated in the panel discussion afterwards. The goal of the seminar was to answer the question: how do the “cultures of correction” in Finland and California handle lawbreakers, crime prevention and allow lawbreakers to make amends and return to society? The increase in California’s prison population cost the state dearly and at least partly impacted state contributions to Fresno State, which has seen numerous tuition increases over the past several years.

“C

alifornia spending for prisons is six times the rate of spending for higher education.” — Julie Lifshay, health manager of Centerforce

Stephen Keleher / The Collegian

Julie Lifshay, health manager of Centerforce was one of the several speakers at Friday’s seminar that focused on punishment in Finland and California.

“We spend more of our budget on prisons than any other state,” President John Welty said in 2009. At the beginning of this semester, while announcing more potential budget cuts and fee increases, he said “I think that it is a tragedy, when the amount our state invests in prisons exceeds the amount it invests in public higher education.” “The costs are considered first in our system,” Aaltonen said. “The big difference is that crime is not a political issue that people use to get elected. And here crime is always brought up and discussed.” “California spending for prisons is six times the rate of spending for higher education,” said Dr. Julie Lifshay, health manager of Centerforce, a nonprofit organization working just out-

side of San Quentin, in her opening statement. In much of her presentation, Lifshay referred to, “The Caging of America,” a New Yorker article by Adam Gopnik. “In the U.S., we try for a fair ‘process,’ we do not try for a ‘just’ outcome,” she said. “We have a revenge motif.” The result has been “mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history. Overall, there are now more people under ‘correctional supervision’ in America—more than six million—than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height,” Adam Gopnik wrote in “Caging.” Lifshay pointed to Califor nia’s Three Strikes law and a law letting the Governor override the parole board on See PRISON, Page 3

For ambitious students, giving it the old college try is getting more cutthroat By Jessica Meyers McClatchy-Tribune Scoring perfect SATs, landing class valedictorian and mastering the violin don’t cut it anymore. Now it’s about priming resumes in middle school, turning science projects into patented inventions and dissecting your life’s achievements in 500 words or fewer. In the battle to entice big-time universities, good is no longer good enough. The college admissions process has morphed into a focused fight to prove individual exceptionalism and convey unparalleled drive. And it may only get more intense. Colleges nationwide have seen swelling numbers of early applicants this year, fueled by an industry pushing college readiness and the growing influence of online marketing. This could breed a generation that works harder and achieves more in its early ages, but it also threatens to promote those who can afford a competitive advantage and punish those who can’t. “Sorry, I’m an average middle-class American and I’ve never done anything life-saving,” said Rachel Brooks,

a senior at Frisco, Texas’s Liberty High who shoulders five advanced placement classes, plays in the marching band, and edits the school newspaper. She also skipped her junior year. The 16-year-old was denied early admission to Northwestern University. “It seems unfair,” she said, “that you have to have all these superhero requirements to get into an Ivy League.” Admissions of ficers blame the aggressive mentality on the HYP – Harvard, Yale, Princeton — effect. Spots continue to dwindle in the nation’s most renowned universities, yet the majority of schools still accept about half their applicants. But as the college-bound pool broadens, the stakes rise for everyone. The charged atmosphere stems partly from demand. High school graduates topped 3.3 million in 2009, bolstered by kids of baby boomers — who themselves came from more educated backgrounds than their parents — and today’s pressing need for a college degree. The University of Texas at Austin received 35,000 applications for the coming school year, its highest yet. About three-quarters of colle ges

have seen application increases each cation process and a belief that early year for the past decade, according to interest will grant students an edge. the National Association for College “The Inter net has absolutely Admission Counseling. made our ability to communicate Even the time when students apply with students much quicker,” said has crept up. Rice University, Texas’s Wes Waggoner, Southern Methodist most prestigious college, had an 18 perUniversity’s dean of undergraduate cent increase in early decision appliadmission and executive director of cations for the coming year. Baylor enrollment services. “You technically University received 2,000 more early can apply on your iPhone.” applications than last fall. In the past two ou’re not competing up there with your peers if years, Texas you don’t do some outside things.” Christian University’s early appli— Tracy Begland, cations have mother of college hopeful gone up by half. “It’s a good news, bad news kind of thing,” Prospective attendees go on virtual said Ray Brown, Texas Christian college tours, hear testimonials from University’s dean of admission. “I’m current students on YouTube and send delighted people are taking this more a common application to several colseriously, but the flip side is they are leges by clicking a button. And a school taking it way too seriously.” can appeal to students who’ve never College advisers attribute the spike walked on its campus. to myriad factors, among them the enhanced accessibility provided by See TEST, Page 3 technology, a more streamlined appli-

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