Group gives Texas
C's, D's on higher
education report card
by Crystal Yednak
Knight-Kidder Tribune
December 04. 2000
Texas earns C's and D's on a na
tional report card released Thursday
on state higher education systems.
The National Center for Public
Policy and Higher Education gives
Texas a C-minus for its preparation
of college students, a D for the per
centage of its population enrolled in
college, a C for affordability of
higher education, a D-plus for gradu
ating students with degrees and a C
for the economic and civic benefits
the state receives for educating its
residents.
The nonpartisan group acknowl
edged that Texas has recently been
moving to improve access to and
affordability of a college education.
"We know we face challenges,"
said Ray Grasshoff, a spokesman for
"We know we face challenges,
but we're already working on it."
the Texas Higher Education Coordi
nating Board. "But we're already
working on it."
The coordinating board adopted a
plan in October called "Closing the
Gaps" that aims to increase the pool
of qualified college applicants by
making a college prep curriculum
standard in high schools and bv
reaching out to minority groups that
are historically underrepresented in
higher education.
A group convened by Lt. Gov. Rick
Perry has also been discussing strat
egies to ensure that Texas colleges
and universities keep pace with a
changing work force and population.
Universities are preparing to ask leg
islators for a large investment in
higher education during the next ses
sion, which starts in January.
According to the Measuring Up
2000 report released Thursday. 32
percent of the state's high school
graduates enter college right after
high school, compared with 54 per-
University grabs a leadership role in a provocative field - Disability Studies
by J. Linn Allen
December 04, 2000
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO - With a blitz of high-pro
file hires, the University of Illinois at
Chicago has made itself the top school
in the country in a cutting-edge disci
pline that bridges health, social policy
and the humanities: the study of how
people with physical and impairments
see and are seen by the world.
Like race studies and gender studies
in the previous generation, the grow
ing field - called disability studies - has
shaken up academia by putting on cen
ter stage a group that has previously
been shunted to the margins.
Disability scholars say the field can
change the way society looks at the dis
abled and has a huge potential constitu
ency in the disabled themselves, those
who care for them and live with them,
and the vast numbers of Baby Boomers
who will be prone to disabilities as they
age.
These scholars' approach to disabil
ity is a far cry from the "medical
model," which deals with it as an ill
ness to be prevented, treated or ame
liorated by crafting better wheelchairs
or hearing aids.
Instead, they propose that the so
called normalcy of a non-disabled body
is not a given but is a socially condi
tioned concept that can and perhaps
should be changed.
"Rather than looking at a man with
a cane or a blind person with glasses,
(the field) looks at the social construc
tion of disability in literature and film
and in the way people think about the
cent in top-performing states.
The report also shows that 43 per
cent of full-time students at Texas'
four-year colleges and universities
complete their degree within five
years, compared with 66 percent in
high- performing states.
In Texas, 25 percent of residents
ages 25 to 65 have a bachelor's de
gree or higher; that number is 34 per
cent in the top states.
The National Center for Public
Policy and Higher Education com-
piled its report using information
from agencies such as the U.S. Cen
sus Bureau, the U.S. Department of
Education, Educational Testing Ser
vice and the Council of Chief State
School Officers. Grades were deter
mined by comparing each state to the
best-performing states.
No state received straight A's on
the report card.
Other large states such as Califor-
-Ray Grasshoff, a spokesman for the Texas
Higher Education Coordinating Board.
nia and New York pulled down an A
grade in at least one category, while
Illinois got A's in preparation, par
ticipation and affordability. Massa
chusetts earned 4 A's or A-minuses,
but a D for affordability. Closer to
Texas, Louisiana received failing
grades in college preparation and
participanon. and Oklahoma earned
a D-plus in preparation and a C in
participation.
The report also showed differ
ences among states in how much
money students borrow to attend
college and how much of their own
income they must contribute toward
tuition.
The Measuring Up 2000 report
Was compiled for legislators to use
in developing higher education poli
cies in their states.
Each state will he graded again in
2002 and 2004.
The public policy organization's
full report can be found on the Web
site www.highereducation.org.
world," said Lennard Davis, the new
chairman of the English department at
VIC and a leading light in the move-
Once a minor province of medical
specialists and social workers, disabil
ity studies has expanded significantly
in the past decade among ambitious
academics, and UIC has pushed to lead
the charge.
"UIC is just miles ahead of almost
any other university" in the field, said
Susan Schweik, an associate professor
of English at the University of Cali
fornia, Berkeley, who is co-directing
an effort to establish a disability stud-
ies program there.
At UIC, studies of disability and hu
man development were raised in 1998
to the level of an academic department,
one that offers both master's and PhD
programs. And with the arrival in the
same year of Stanley Fish, the empire
building dean of UlC's College of Arts
and Science, the discipline began to as
sume star status.
The aggressive Fish has recruited not
only Davis, who has a joint appoint
ment in English and the new depart
ment of disability and human develop
ment, but several other trailblazing dis
ability scholars.
They include Sander Gilman, a
world-renowned cultural historian who
has written some 40 books, including
important work on the depiction of dis
ability in art; and David Mitchell, un
til recently head of the Society for Dis
ability Studies.
Mitchell is heading UlC's doctoral
program in the field, the only one of
its kind in the country.
NATIONAL 'CA - NIP - US NEWS
Parents
student
reprint of Playboy cover
by Shannon King
Knight-Ridder Tribune
December 03, 2000
COLUMBIA, S.O
was to update students on a few
graduates of Dutch Fork High
School. But the result was noth-
ing more than obscene, some par
ents say.
"As a mother it goes against ev
erything I believe," said Greta
Bick ley, who has a 14-year-old
daughter at Dutch Fork. "This dis
trict holds itself up as being ex
cellent in terms of academics and
this is the best they could come
up with."
The fuss is over a story that ran
in the October edition of the
school's student newspaper, The
Renaissance. It included a photo
of Dutch Fork graduate Lauren
Hill, who posed for the cover of
Playboy magazine's October 2000
Bickley and a few other parents
question the newspaper's decision
to print the Playboy cover in the
newspaper.
Debra Milhous wrote a letter to
the school newspaper staff saying
that the photo was in poor taste.
"I didn't think it was appropri
ate for the students to print," said
Milhous, who has two children at
Dutch Fork. "The damage has al
ready been done and there's noth
ing they can do about it now. But
if they're going to let this happen,
then what's next'?"
Editors of the newspaper said
they stand by what they did and
they have the support of the
teacher who oversees the staff,
and district administration.
Student advisor Amy Medlock
said she discussed the photo with
attorneys and school principals
before permitting students to print
it.
Medlock said she even edited
the photo so it would not be re-
veiling
Medlock and the editors agree stu
dents were interested in the ar
ticle, which also featured three
other graduates
-- Matt Duffie, a model fot
Abercrombie and Fitch.
- Charissa Seaman, a dancer I'm
pop singer Britney Spears.
-- Erik Kimrey, a football playei
Courses in the UIC graduate pro
gram have such titles as Disability and
Culture, History of Human Differ
ences: Disability Minorities in
America and Advocacy and Empow
erment in Disabilities.
"We're not as concerned about how
to cure diseases that affect certain
people, but how (physical) differences
are defined and how the differences
affect people because of social forces
and cultural values," said Carol Gill,
an assistant professor at UIC and cur
rent president of the Society for Dis
ability Studies.
The frankly political stance implied
in such an approach allies the schol
arly work to the disability rights move
ment, just as African-American stud
ies is closely identified with black
rights and gender studies with
women's rights and gay rights.
"To form the definition of disabil
ity for a historical moment is a politi
cal act," said Mitchell. "We are en
gaged in politics by reformulating."
That includes reinterpreting the very
term "disability" to denote a condition
imposed by society rather than a fac
tual description. Increasingly, the pre
ferred term in the field for the actual
physical state of limited functioning
is "impairment."
Gill, who uses a wheelchair, notes
that if society suddenly changed to
become "a nirvana of accommoda
tion," she would still be impaired but
not disabled.
"I wouldn't be able to use my arms
and legs in the way that most people
do, but I wouldn't be compromised in
my interaction with society," she said.
upset about
newspaper's
at the University of South Caro
lina.
"It's entertainment and that's
what the students want to read
about," she said. "We wanted the
students to know about the inter
esting jobs some of the graduates
are doing, and being on the cover
of Playboy is a big deal."
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled
in 1988 that school administrators
do have the discretion to determine
when published material is inap
propriate for students.
Mike Hiestand, an attorney at
the Student Press Law Center, in
Arlington, Va., said reprinting the
covet isn't illegal and agrees there
is some news value in informing
students of a graduate's success.
"I don't think they did it in a sen
sational way," Hiestand said.
"They heard the rumors, they
checked it out and reported the
The goal
news."
Melody Fitzwater, 16, a junior
at Dutch Fork, said the photo
wasn't offensive to her and the
newspaper had every right to pub
lish it.
"It wasn't like they inspired any
one to choose a career," she said.
"It was just a harmless (article) for
students to read about former
Dutch Fork students."
Butch Barnhart, chairman of
Dutch Fork's School Improvement
Council, said he hasn't heard any
concerns from parents about the
photo.
"I haven't had one call about it
and it wasn't mentioned at our
meeting a few weeks ago,'
Barnhart said.
Bickley said she was stunned
when her daughter showed her the
photo. She said she was even more
offended that the article didn't fea
ture graduates in other careers.
"I didn't see anything highlight
ing a doctor, lawyer or teacher,"
she said. "I don't want my daugh
ter thinking the best she can do is
be in Playboy magazine."
Medlock said that because
Dutch Fork opened only nine years
ago, most of the graduates are still
developing their careers.
She said the newspaper staff is
considering making the updates
part of a series.
Hill, an Irmo native, was un
available for comment.
Naturally, when society is seen as the
cause of disability, the disabled and their
advocates are going to see a need for
social change
But Davis said he thinks the field is
much more than a niche for a special
interest group indulging in identity poli
tics. He contends that disability has the
potential to affect most of the popula
tion, especially as Baby Boomers age.
"The so-called marginal group is ac
tually part of the social fabric," said
Davis, who is not himself disabled but
whose parents were deaf.
The field has engendered some con
flicts within academia. Some question
how an academic discipline can remain
objective while being so advocacy-ori
ented, just as some are skeptical about
the polemical thrust of African-Ameri
can studies and gender studies.
Others within the disability move
ment ask whether it's appropriate for
people who are not disabled to be teach
ing and doing research that focuses so
strongly on how disabled people expe
rience society. Mitchell said the major
ity of scholars in the field probably are
not disabled, though he noted that he
knows of no figures on that issue.
Nefertiti Nowell, who entered UlC's
PhD program this year and who is not
disabled, said she understood she lacked
the world view of the disabled.
"There is a gap, but people with dis
abilities will help me fill the gap and
keep focused," she said.
Nowell, 27, who has a master's de
gree in counseling and has worked as a
therapist at clinics in Chicago, added
that, as an African-American, she has
insight on being a minority. She said she
Adventurous college
students chow down
insects
by Diane Suchetka
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
December 04. 2000
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - They tasted
like chocolate. crunched like Rice
Krispies, went down easily.
It wasn't until afterward that you
felt a little queasy, when your tongue
automatically went !Or that little piece
stuck there, in your molar.
Then, you couldn't help but imag-
ine a leg or antenna.
That's what it feels like to eat a
chocolate-covered immature cricket.
Yuk, you say. But more than a
dozen students did it at Davidson
College.
"Do I have worms in my teeth," se
nior Anna Padgett asked, smiling big
at her friends.
"I've never tried a worm before.
Maybe I'll put it on my resume."
The crispy critters were part of a
zoology lesson, taught by assistant
professor Chris Paradise, which in
cluded fruit fly banana nut bread,
mealworm chocolate chip cookies
and mealworm larvae and cricket
nymphs fried in garlic butter.
Why did the professor cook insects
for lunch? "A couple of reasons." he
said.
For one, about 75 percent of the
world's population eats insects as part
of their diet.
"A lot of Davidson students will
travel abroad," Paradise said, ..and we
want to expose them to the things
they'll experience in other cultures."
Ross Cocklin, a senior from
Cari Lentzch serves herself a spoonful of mealworms sautéed in garlic
butter. The meal was presented by Davidson College professor Chris
Paradise as part of a program that exposes students to other cultures.
is planning to do her research on how
African-Americans with disabilities -
"double minorities" - form their iden-
Another tension in the field exists
between the traditional biological and
medical approaches to the subject and
the new wave of social criticism. In
deed, UIC insiders note that the new
disability PhD program is an uneasy
union of the new disability studies
track with the traditional departments
of physical therapy and occupational
therapy.
But Gill said such conflicts can be
worked out.
"Just because you shift your angle
in looking at a phenomenon ... doesn't
mean you kick out anything," she said.
"You just put it in a different perspec
tive."
As an example, she said a new piece
of assistive technology, such as an in
novative wheelchair, could be devel
oped within the older framework but
then analyzed from different points of
view. A social policy analyst might ask
how the development of the wheelchair
was funded: a cultural theorist might
look at how teachers and students re
act when one pupil uses the wheelchair
in class.
"Getting at the intricate relations
among culture, society and physical
differences is absolutely the corner
stone," Gill said.
The foundation for the UIC program
has been laid over a stretch of years as
the school gradually took over govern
ment programs, snared grants and
added staff to the area.
Helping to orchestrate the rise was
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2000
Owensboro, Ky., figures he'd eaten
worse inadvertently, he said while
trying the garlic worms - nothing for
a guy who once swallowed a gold
fish on a bet.
The banana bread with fruit flies
went down easiest. You couldn't see
the flies. Besides, Paradise had only
enough to pour about an 1/8 of a cup
into each loaf.
The cricket nymphs, being covered
in chocolate, weren't so bad either.
But the mealworm larvae Were an
other story
The pan full of tiny worms, One to
two inches long, their little legs
curled up but visible and fried to a
golden brown, looked like a pan full
of worms.
Those brave enough to try them,
some with their eyes closed, said they
tasted like garlic butter, crunched like
corn flakes.
It was a learning experience for
Paradise, too. He never before had
made cookies from scratch.
The cricket nymphs - immature
crickets - he explained, were a little
easier. He dry-roasted them first.
Then he melted chocolate in a double
boiler and dipped them in.
They were so good, Cari Lentzsch,
a senior from Dallas, wrapped left
overs to take home, then confessed
she was going to leave them out for
her unsuspecting roommates.
"Sick and twisted, yes. I know,"
she said, dropping the bugs into a
napkin.
But you've got to find fun where
you can
David Braddock, who came to UIC in
1979 after working as a White House
consultant on disabilities. He is now
chairman of the university's department
of disability and human development in
the College of Health and Human De
velopment.
When Fish arrived as dean of the Col
lege of Arts and Sciences in 1998, he was
quick to see the possibilities of disabil
ity studies, according to Braddock and
others.
"We've certainly seized the initiative
there," Fish said. "One of the reasons it's
going to work, if it does work, is that it
puts together the strengths of the univer
sity, the humanities and the social sci
ences and the medical side."
Davis, he noted, has a cross-college
appointment in Arts and Sciences and
Health and Human Development, and
Gilman - lured away this summer from
the University of Chicago - will cut
across three colleges: Arts and Sciences,
Medicine, and Architecture and the Arts.
(Gilman is currently teaching in Ger
many and will begin his $200,000-a-year
UIC position next fall.)
Fish sees disability studies as an ex
ample of the "critical theory" wave that
has swept through many academic fields,
subjecting hallowed tenets to social and
historical analysis and questioning ac
cepted ways of looking at things.
"It's been a great ride as discipline af
ter discipline has awakened to this," he
said. "Predictably, the younger people
come in very excited and the older people
get very nervous because they fear, quite
correctly, that everything they've been
assuming in their work is now being
challenged."