FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 2001
Spring break student
injuries while performing pool stunt
by Ardy Friedberg
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
March 14, 2001
FORT LAUDERDALE -- The
Rutgers University sophomore who
fell from a third-floor balcony to the
concrete near a beach-area motel
swimming pool died Monday evening
at Broward General Medical Center.
Michael Santiago, 19, of Wall
Township, N.J., had been kept alive
by artificial life support since the early
Sunday morning accident. At a news
conference Monday afternoon,
Dr. Ralph Guarneri, a trauma
surgeon at the hospital, said, “I
don’t believe he will recover...
The situation will not reverse.”
At 6:30 p.m., doctors de
clared Santiago brain dead and,
with the consent of his family,
took him off life support, ac-
cording to hospital spokes
woman Sara Howley.
Santiago’s parents and sister
were at his bedside throughout the
day.
Witnesses told police that Santiago
had jumped from the balcony into the
pool three times before he lost his
balance on the wet railing, fell to the
concrete feet first, then slipped again
and smacked the back of his head.
Santiago’s accident was the first se
rious Spring Break incident since
1986, when a University of Massa
chusetts student died in a motorcycle
crash on Ocean Drive. That year
seven students died in Spring Break
related accidents in the state.
In the 1980 s, Fort Lauderdale’s
beaches drew as many as 375,000 stu
dents each spring. For the past sev
eral years, the number has hovered
around 15,000, according to Nicki
Grossman, the president of the
Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention
& Visitors Bureau.
But some merchants feel that esti
mate is low and police are geared up
for the crowds, said Maj. Sharon
Andersen, who oversees the beach
Experiments in weightlessness
New Town House Apartments
Twelve officers were added Friday
to the normal complement of 10 for
Spring Break, she said. They will walk
the beach 9 a.m. to 5 a.m. until April
12.
“I can’t say there is zero tolerance.
It’s unfair to hold visitors to zero tol
erance when they don’t know our
laws,” Andersen said. “But people are
drinking out of open containers and
walking in the streets. If we must, we
will take action. We’ll give them a
chance to comply. If we are advised
of something, we will act on it.”
“This kid fell off the third story. He landed
right next to the pool. He looksyoung. A
college student."
-911 call that police received at 3:52 a.m
So far, the number of arrests and ci
tations is about normal, Andersen
said.
Santiago was injured Sunday morn
ing as he and other Spring Breakers
partied around the pool and on the
balconies at the Days Inn and Suites
at 4221 N. Ocean Drive.
Police received a 911 call at 3:52
a.m. from a man who said, “This kid
fell off the third story. He landed right
next to the pool. He looks young. A
college student.”
Two paramedics staying at the mo
tel rushed to Santiago's side, and
emergency workers arrived two min
utes later, said police spokesman De
tective Mike Reed. They found
Santiago with a very weak pulse and
a severe injury to the back of his head,
Reed said.
At a news conference in the hospi
tal Monday before Santiago died, his
relative, Richard Blom, described him
as “an athletic and strong individual
who has a unique love of life.”
“Mikey is a very warm, outgoing
young man who has many friends and
Senior D.J.
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dies from
family members who are devastated
by his accident,” Blom said.
Grossman said the accident was an
anomaly, not a signal that the excesses
of old Spring Breaks - fights, drunk
enness and all-night partying - are
creeping back.
But some merchants say the crowds
are getting bigger.
Dave Edwards, the new general
manager of popular Spring Break spot
Club Atlantis, said this year’s Spring
Break crowd is larger than the last
one, in both door count and money.
At Howard Johnson, a
Spring Break hotel on the
beach, the college crowd is out
in full force.
“This year and last year,”
said director of operations Alan
Berger, “you’ve seen an esca
lation.”
Grossman said the current
crowd is welcome here. Some
local business people agreed.
“It’s a good group of kids
this year - not like they used to be,”
said Wendi Hazewski, manager of
Margarita Cafd on the beachfront.
“I’ve been very surprised very
few fights, very little vandalism,” said
Edwards of Club Atlantis. "I haven’t
had a bathroom trashed yet.”
“The Spring Breakers have
changed,” agreed Howard Johnson’s
Berger. “They’re not as destructive.
They’re more mature. They have
American Express Gold Cards.”
Still, at Howard Johnson, older
guests are gently warned,
“Right now we have a lot of Spring
Breakers,” a couple was told at the
check-in counter last week. “So it gets
kind of noisy. Just so you know.”
Blom, Santiago’s relative, had an
other warning for visitors: “As tragic
as the situation is, the family would
like to take the opportunity to remind
all students that Spring Break is a time
for fun and not for grieving. Please
do not partake of any activities that
might be hazardous to you."
Staff Writer Shannon O'Boye con
tributed to this report.
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Some educators trying to shift
focus on students by dumping SAT
by Holly Stepp
March 13, 2001
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
For 75 years, the SAT exam has been pivotal in the lives
of college-bound students and their parents. For most, it is
a statement on how smart they are and a ticket to a degree
from a four-year university.
But some of the nation’s top educators are questioning
whether the SAT deserves its vaunted status in the Ameri
can psyche, and whether the most commonly taken col
lege admissions test should be used at all.
In Florida, officials say they have already de-empha
sized the SAT, which evaluates verbal and mathematical
reasoning skills, in the admissions process at state univer
sities. They say the national debate could lead to a further
review of admissions criteria.
The SAT isn’t the best measure of whether a student can
do college-level work, some educators say. Instead, they
contend grades earned in challenging classes tell more
about a student’s abilities.
University of California President Richard Atkinson last
month stunned a national group of college presidents by
suggesting the UC system should stop requiring the SAT
as part of admissions. Among the universities Atkinson
oversees are UC at Los Angeles and UC at Berkeley, two
of the most prestigious institutions in the country.
Atkinson, a psychologist and testing expert, said a na
tional obsession with SAT results is “compromising our
education system” by focusing students’ attention on learn
ing test-taking skills rather than meaningful academic
work.
Colleges and universities have exacerbated the problem
by ising SAT scores as a measure of institutional prestige,
Atkinson said.
“We are caught up in the educational equivalent of a
nuc.ear arms race,” Atkinson said during a keynote ad
dress to the American Council on Education in Washing
ton, D.C.
Supporters of the SAT say it measures something more
important to gauging college success: analytical thinking
skills.
“It is the only common yardstick in an era of grade in
flation, where students complete different courses with dif
ferent teachers who use different grading standards,” said
Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, a New
Jersey company that owns the SAT.
By testing math and verbal reasoning on a variety of
sub ects, the SAT gives a reliable measure of a student's
overall developed abilities, he said.
"That gets at the more important goal of the standards
movement - namely, to teach students to think,” he said.
Atkinson’s criticism of the SAT has added heat to a peren
nial debate in academe. But no one is predicting any ma
jor changes in the near future.
“Is this the death blow Cor the SAT?” asked Bob
Schaeffer, of Fair Test, a Massachusetts testing reform or
ganization. “No, but this does advance the case against
the SAT.”
About 90 percent of the nation’s 1,600 four-year col
leges and universities use the SAT, which is taken by more
than two million students annually. Last year, only 545
students earned a perfect score of 1,600 (800 on each sec
tion); the national average is 1,019.
Nearly 300 schools have already made the SAT optional.
Those include mostly small, elite liberal arts colleges such
as Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts. They rely instead on
portfolios, personal essays, interviews, grades and class
rank to help decide admissions.
Since Atkinson’s comments in Washington, several
schools said they would review their admissions policies,
including the University of Georgia and the Florida uni
versity system.
Before stepping down, former university system Chan
cellor Adam Herbert urged Florida to continue de-empha
sizing SAT scores in admissions. New Education Com
missioner Charlie Crist has hinted the state would review
the admissions process once the university-system restruc
turing is complete.
A longstanding criticism of the SAT is that it is cultur
ally and economically biased. Students who have not ex
perienced the theater, museums and other enrichment pro-
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grams may not have been exposed to vocabulary and con
cepts on the SAT.
Beyond that bias, the SAT is “coachable,” said Schaeffer,
of Fair Test. Students can learn tricks to decipher SAT analo
gies and mathematical pattern problems. The test prep in
dustry earns more $lOO million annually from study
courses for the SAT and other exams.
“The kids whose parents can shell out the hundreds of
dollars for the prep courses do the best on the SAT,”
Schaeffer said. “So what are we measuring beside income?”
As an alternative, Atkinson has recommended that the
10 UC campuses, which enroll more than 170,000 students,
adopt a "holistic way” of judging students. His proposal,
which is moving through California’s approval process,
would replace the SAT 1, which was rooted in intelligence
tests for Army recruits during World War I, with SAT II
exams, which focus on specific subjects.
The SAT II covers English writing and literature, two
levels of math, U.S. and world history, as well as several
sciences and foreign languages. Those tests would even
tually be replaced with new standardized tests tied directly
to California’s entry requirements.
Using those kind of tests, Atkinson says, would allow
high school teachers to focus on academic subjects rather
than teaching to the test.
The tests Atkinson envisions would be more like the
original college board exams, which were based on the
curricula of elite prep schools, and the SAT’s counterpart,
the American College Test or ACT.
The ACT is taken by more than one million students
annually, mostly in the Midwest. The test is closely tied to
high school course work, and students can generally im
prove their scores by taking higher levels of math, science
and English courses.
Subject-based tests like the SAT II and ACT would as
sess whether a student has mastered a subject rather than
“undefined notions of aptitude or intelligence,” Atkinson
said. "The strength of American society has been its belief
that actual achievement should be what matters most,” he
said. “Students should be judged on the basis of what they
have made of the opportunities available to them.”
Caperton and other SAT supporters say critics are mak
ing the test the scapegoat for the failings of high schools.
“The better education any student has, the better the op
portunity they have to perform well on the SAT,” he said.
“Dropping the SAT from college admissions is like drop
ping an ice cube in the ocean,” he said. “It won’t make any
difference in the quality of education a student receives.”
Technically, Florida’s public universities don’t require
the SAT, though thousands of high school students still
take the test. Many admissions offices use the scores to
help make their selections. And the state - which earmarked
nearly $2 million for SAT prep courses at low-performing
high schools - is unlikely to eliminate it completely.
The baseline for admission to any of Florida’s 10 public
universities is a B average in 19 selected high school
courses. An SAT score is not required unless high school
grades fall below that level.
In addition, the Talented 20 program guarantees admis
sion to students who graduate in the top 20 percent of their
class, regardless of SAT scores. At larger, more competi
tive schools such as Florida State University and the Uni
versity of Florida, SAT scores help winnow piles of appli
cations.
“1 think those who suggest removing the SAT from the
admissions process fail to understand its value,” said Larry
Abele, FSU provost.
FSU receives more than 20,000 applications for a fresh
man class of slightly more than 5,000. Of those, about 60
percent will be accepted. FSU freshmen have an average
SAT score of about 1,200, with a range of 1,050 to 1,250.
"Combined with grade point averages, they provide a very
good way of determining which students will be success
ful here,” Abele said.
University of Miami Provost Luis Glaser said the SAT
is the quality measure in a nation where few other stan
dardized tests are used as widely.
“If we are familiar with the high school the student at
tended, we know more about the principal, the teachers,
the types of classes offered,” Glaser said. “But how do we
compare the student from Miami with one from St. Louis?
The SAT is a strong tool for that.”