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."
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