Ethics and Politics Reflection Paper

EDLD 8439 Politics in Higher Education

Santuan E. Stanley
Georgia Southern University

Summary
The article that I chose for this assignment was, Pressure from All Sides: The 2015
Survey of Admissions Directors. As you tell by the title the topic is about the forever struggle of
figuring if each institution will meet the requirements for enrollments. A lot of institutions have
enrollment goals that they would like to meet each year and with enrollment it evolves into
retention rates as well but we will save that for a later date. Through admissions news and
controversy, the poll suggests that there are some additional points of tension that have been
lingering behind the scenes. These points will include, pressure from higher-ups to admit
applicants, are major societal issues such as student loan debt or could be about to emerge with
new force, the legal battle against the consideration of race in admissions. There were several
issues that were touched on this topic such as; meeting enrollment goals, fear of losing students
because of student debt, having different limits between public and private, and most directors

are skeptical of some of the new approaches to admissions. Other issues that the article hit on do
Asian applicants receive fair treatment. The argument about Asian applicants is that some people
feel that with affirmative action the Asian applicants are held to a higher standard. The advocates
of the Asian-American group sent in their argument to Princeton University and till this day has
yet to come to the light but has been cited in briefs in the Supreme Court.
After expressing concerns of those issues that administrators go through the next topic
was Affirmative Action for the Advantaged. This particular topic was brought about an
independent investigation that happened in February of this year. The president of the University
of Texas at Austin was allowing students to be admitted both at the undergraduate level and even
in the universitys law school without meeting the required grades and test scores. Stated in the
article, the report spurred considerable debate among admissions professionals, some of whom
expressed anger that such interference would happen even once, and others saying that this sort
of pressure should be much rarer than apparently was the case at Texas. The report blasted the
presidential interventions as "affirmative action for the advantaged." (Jaschik, 2015)This issue
you can imagine made a lot of individuals mad because some students were turned away but
somehow some of these students still made the cut. Late it was found out that some of these
students had connections with big time alum or lawmakers. A survey was sent out to other
institutions asking the question if they had experienced various forms of pressure from outside
the admissions infrastructure, the results showed that many felt the pressure from well-connected
applicants and then about one in four at the private institutions reported the same pressure. This
brings up of the issue even though the administrators are having problems filling enrollment
goals, but is it ethical to just let a student in that did not meet the requirements that is well
connected and then turning away someone that worked really hard to meet the requirements and
still do not get in?

Reflection
I felt like this was a very good written article and it brought up some major issues about
enrollment. I feel that Higher Education will always have the issue about enrollment because
students do not want to be cornered with student debt they rather just go work. The article stated;
A majority of admissions directors at public institutions believe that debt should not exceed
$20,000 for a four-year degree, while a majority of private college admissions directors accept
more than $20,000 as a reasonable debt level. And while only 2 percent of admissions directors
at public institutions see debt in excess of $40,000 as reasonable, 13 percent of admissions
directors at private institutions do. (Jaschik, 2015) This article even though it was based off a
survey they made sure they went and broke them terms down to make sure the reader was
understanding the actual reasons the administrators are feeling pressure. Actually adding a case
in with the University of Texas at Austin brought the affirmative action to the light. You always
hear about this happening with schools but no one really understands why it happens. I think it is
a good thing that some schools feel enough to let people in because everyone deserves to get an
education but I just hope that everyone gets a fair share. A lot of times in life it is about who you
know and not what you know so it made clear sense to me why that was happening.
Implications
As implications I can see where these issues are used today. I am going to use Georgia
Southern for instance the enrollment process to get into school is a big deal and if you read the
pamphlets they hand out, the school does a really great job to highlight the enrollment rates vs
retention rates. One thing I have heard is even using the women to men ratio to get more students
to come to school here. Even though athletics plays a big part in the enrollment process they
even show the graduation rate for the athletes, with the slogan Rings and Diplomas. I have not
actually seen the matters of affirmative action and letting students in because they are wellconnected but I would not put it passed the institution. This institution draws the picture of

education, family, and clean fun who would not want to join this great University.

Reference

Jaschik, S. (2015, October 1). Pressure From All Sides: The 2015 Survey of Admissions
Directors. Retrieved from Inside Higher Education:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/pressure-all-sides-2015-survey-admissionsdirectors