a student newspaper of the university of tulsa
february 25, 2013 issue 18 ~ volume 98
TU gets government report card
Graphic by Jill Graves
TU officials give a cautious welcome to one of President Obama’s higher education reform proposals. Oscar Ho Staff Writer
F
or some at the University of Tulsa, the process of college evaluation did not end after the decision to attend. A recent post on “TU Confessions,” a Facebook page for anonymous statements, read, “It scares me that TU’s graduation rate is 66 percent.” The remark, which referred to TU’s six-year graduation rate, sparked a small flurry of statistical discussion. Rankings published by US News and World Report, Princeton Review and others have long
sought to quantify the quality of an education at various schools. Recognizing the influence of these journals, TU’s administration has made an increased ranking in these publications one of its priorities. Now, the federal government is joining the college numbercrunchers. President Barack Obama pledged in this month’s State of the Union Address to start education reform, from preschool through college. Obama promised to bring the price of education down while boosting quality. For colleges, Obama announced the “College Scorecard,” a set of metrics “that parents and students can use to compare schools based on a simple criteria—where you can get the most bang for your educational buck.” Compiled by the Department of Education, data on the Col-
lege Scorecard is calculated from information that the government already has, much of it from its Integrated Postsecondary Education
“The government has the ability to punish people if they’re not reporting properly ... that US News does not have,” he said. “US News can
“The government is hyper-regulatory in education issues, and it’s not a matter of the current administration” Data System (IPEDS). Universities that receive federal assistance, including Pell Grants, are required to file with IPEDS every year. The use of government numbers can be a very good thing, suggested TU Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Dr. D. Thomas Benediktson. In the case of colleges, government numbers are almost certain to be accurate, Benediktson said.
kick you out, and they have done that. The government can take away your federal money.” Although unopposed to the new statistics, Benediktson was cautious of any new government regulation. “The government is hyperregulatory in educational issues, and it’s not a matter of the current administration. It’s been a trend since the 1980’s, I think,” he said. He added that regulation tends
to burden schools even though they may try to do the opposite. “I’m behind the government’s attempt to make education more affordable for students, but on the other hand, all this regulation costs us a lot of money to report these things ... and that adds to the cost of education,” he said. However, he was pleased with the concept of the College Scorecard. “I don’t have any objection to that kind of information being publicly available. I saw it more factual than evaluative.” Director of the School of Urban Education Dr. Kara-Gae Neal welcomed the government’s attempt at standardizing measurements of the price of education. The College Scorecard is simply “another reporting instrument where TU’s data may be taken
See Grade page 4
Junior Achievement Junior Achievement is a non-profit organization partnering with volunteers from the community to teach elementary students about their roles as individuals, workers and consumers, and to prepare middle/high school students for key economic workforce issues. Street School Tutors Street School is currently needing volunteers to tutor students high school level Algebra 1 on Fridays from 9am-11am. Kendall-Whittier Elementary Volunteers are needed at Kendall-Whittier to serve as lunch buddies, reading buddies, cafeteria monitors, playground monitors, library assistants, and office assistants. For more information on any of these opportunities, contact Kathy Shelton in the True Blue Neighbor Volunteer Center at kathy-shelton@utulsa.edu or call 918-631-3535.