Open or Shut Doors at CUNY?
David Crook
To the Editor:
In "Open Admissions at the City University of New York" in the July-August issue, William Crain downplays key information about CUNY's baccalaureate admissions policy. As a result, he presents a one-sided argument that distorts the policy's impact. If we are to allow the academic community to make a fair judgment about CUNY's admissions policy, then the following information must be considered.
Contrary to what Crain and his fellow critics predicted, the new policy has had little effect on the racial composition of CUNY's senior colleges, a finding echoed by the New York State Education Commissioner. This stability is due in part to CUNY's initiatives to improve the preparation of students from all backgrounds.
CUNY's efforts to prepare students before they enter college mean that more students can begin college taking credit-bearing courses. College Now, a collaborative initiative of CUNY and the New York City Department of Education, prepares graduating high school seniors to do college-level work. The free program serves over 35,000 students a year. CUNY also offers free remedial instruction to entering students during the summer and winter. Success in these immersion programs enables many students to qualify for admission to a senior college. Students who complete remediation before starting college benefit in many ways, not the least of which is that they can put their financial aid award toward courses that count for a degree.
Although Crain attempts to discount them, exemptions for English as a Second Language (ESL) and SEEK students (SEEK is a special opportunity program for underprepared students) are an integral element of the new policy and therefore must be included in any analysis of the racial impact of that policy. Exempt students improve their basic skills through ESL courses, counseling, tutoring, and workshops, enabling them to successfully complete college coursework.
To be sure, CUNY will continue to monitor the impact of the changes in its admissions policy. However, the evidence thus far shows a policy change that raises academic standards while maintaining diversity, a policy certainly worthy of support.
David Crook
Dean for Institutional Research and Assessment
City University of New York
William Crain Responds:
From David Crook's letter, a reader might conclude that I said nothing about the impact of CUNY's new bachelor's degree admissions policy on student diversity. But I reported the effects so far. Between 1999 and 2002, "the proportion of white and Asian first-year students increased two to three percentage points, while the proportion of African American and Latino students decreased by two to three points." Crook and I see the size of this change differently, but there's a more basic disagreement.
I believe Crook and CUNY's leaders overemphasize diversity as our goal. "Elite" institutions seek diversity, but CUNY and other public institutions should be more concerned about full and fair access for all. I described how CUNY's new admissions policy is wrongly shutting doors on many students by assigning unwarranted power to standardized tests. The tests are weak or useless predictors of success in CUNY courses. In fall 2001, a fifth of all first-year applicants who would have been admitted to bachelor's degree programs were turned away solely on the basis of these tests. African American and Latino students were disproportionately rejected. CUNY is a striking example of our society's overuse of standardized tests.
A minority of CUNY applicants—those who qualify for a special opportunity program or for English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction—are exempt from passing all the tests. Crook surely knows that one must exclude test-exempt students in some analyses of the tests' effects. Crook praises the help CUNY gives to the exempt students, but since 1995 CUNY has experienced huge declines in ESL enrollments.
CUNY has initiated some promising programs, but these pale in comparison to its historic open admissions policy, which opened the doors so widely to people of color. CUNY has replaced open admissions with a defective, test-dominated policy.
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