Articles Week 2

The article “Economy Hits Hard on Black Campuses” was written by Shaila Dewan is about many Black Campuses that have been hit hard and are struggling due to the economy. Morris Brown College in Atlanta is just one of the schools that have been hit hard by the economy. The school is in 30 million dollars worth of debt and currently only has 151 students. Some of their utilities have been cut off because of not paying their bills. Clark Atlanta University had to lay off about 100 staff members and had to cancel some of their class saying that it was an “enrollment emergency.” Other schools have announced salary reductions among many other things. The article gives two reasons that black institutions have disadvantages over non black institutions. One reason is that they receive smaller endowments which in return leads to reliance on tuition and fees and there is a higher percentage of disadvantaged students who are facing credit crunches when they apply for loans. Another reason that Black Intuitions are facing hard times is because most of their students qualify for grants and scholarships but the money is just not there to fund it. The article also mentions how the funds that the United Nergo College Fund has collected has decreased by 10%.
Overall I think that this is a very good and informative article. This article gives an insight on how difficult it is for many students to attend college and how many colleges are struggling do to the way the economy is. I think that this is something that is very important and doesn’t get enough attention. With the current state of the economy and many jobs being lost, some of the only ones left are the ones that require degrees. If one is not able to attend college because of financial problems then how do they have hopes of getting an education and finding a job?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/us/19colleges.html?_r=1&ref=education
The article “Student Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes” by Max Roosevelt talks about how college student’s expectations are too high for the work that they do. The article interviews a professor at the University of Maryland who teaches English classes who says that every time that he hands back papers there are complaints from students saying they deserve a higher grade. He says that he tells students that meeting the standard requirements is not enough that they need to achieve more. The article also mentions research that has been done which revealed that 1/3 of students say that the expected a B for attending lectures and 40% said that a B was deserved for completing the reading. The article also mentions how expectations are very different at the college level. The article also interviews different people who state their opinions of how grades should be given and they are all different.
Overall I found this article to be very interesting. I think that it is very true that expectations are very different at the college level. I think that it is a process that everyone learns. The first semester of college everyone learns how all professors are different and how different college is from high school. I think that it is good that this is an issue that is talked about because it is important.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/education/18college.html?_r=1&ref=education