of 20-year lab employee Wen Ho Lee, h a sdampened morale and production underLos Alamos’ first and only manager, t h eUniversity of California.

L e e, a Chinese American mechanicale n g i n e e r, has been charged with 59 counts

of security violations. Congressional andfederal investigators have charged that theChinese People’s Republic stole nuclearweapons designs, and have heaped blameon the university and its federal sponsor,the Department of Energy.

The DOE reacted by sending hastily-assembled squads of agents to impose

Vol. 8 No. 2 Spring 2000 ` Published by The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education

Scientists Under SuspicionG o v e rnment charges hurt morale at a nationalnuclear weapons laboratoryBy Carl Irving

LO S AL A M O S, NE W ME X I C O

THE RESEARCH HERE, in ajumble of laboratories on a high,lonely mesa, has been both famed

and feared for 57 years. To d a y, n e a r l y12,000 people work on many importantunclassified projects, while maintaining thew o r l d ’s most formidable stockpile ofnuclear weapons.

Work on the weapons and other secretmilitary and intelligence projects takesplace in widely scattered, heavily guardedb u i l d i n g s, some of them surrounded byimposing rolls of barbed wire. But inmostly unguarded buildings, from Wo r l dWar II “ t e m p o s ” to modern multi-storys t r u c t u r e s, others labor on such matters asnew ways to detect brain tumors or com-bat cholera.

Since last year, h o w e v e r, a barrage ofespionage charges, followed by months ofhighly publicized investigations, c u l m i n a-ting in the arrest and solitary confinement continued on page 14

In This IssueThe City Collegesof Chicago“Last Chance U” is also thecollege of first choice for manycitizens of ChicagoBy Kathy Wi t kow s k y

CH I CAG O, IL L I N O I S

IM AGINE WA L K I N G into a class-room filled with two dozen studentsfrom 15 different countries, s e v e r a l

different races and religions, ranging in agefrom early twenties to senior citizens.

Imagine further that most of them can’twrite very well—at least not in English.Wh a t ’s more, most of them work at leastp a r t - t i m e. Many of them are parents. M o s tof them are poor. A couple probably havedropped out of a four-year school or trans-ferred from another community college ortechnical school, while a couple othersmay already have earned an advanceddegree—though not necessarily from anEnglish-speaking institution.

Now imagine that your job is to teachthem a college-level humanities course.

Th a t ’s the challenge that greets Je f f r e yG i b s o n , an adjunct instructor at Harry S.Truman Community College, twice aw e e k . Located in Chicago’s Uptown continued on page 4

n e i g h b o r h o o d , aracially and ethnic-ally mixed areanear Lake Michi-g a n , Truman boaststhe most diverse—and poorest—stu-dent body of theseven City Colle-ges of Chicago,with students from110 different coun-tries who speak 58 different languages.

Like the neighborhood, the school is agateway for immigrants, but it also plays akey role for the city’s minorities: 1 3percent of the students are black (half ofthem are African A m e r i c a n , half are fromother countries); 44 percent are Hispanic;13 percent are A s i a n . Nearly three-quar-ters of the students have incomes belowthe federal poverty level. Then again,about 18 percent have attended a four-year institution, and some of them alreadyhave degrees.

massive security hereand at the other UC-managed national wea-pons laboratory inL i v e r m o r e, C a l i f o r n i a .

S u d d e n l y, s c i e n t i s t swere faced with whatthey say were volumi-n o u s, confusing andsometimes contradic-tory new security direc-t i v e s. Thousands of labemployees underwenti n t e r r o g a t i o n s. M a n yforeign- born scientistsand engineers here believe they havecome under suspicion solely because oftheir ethnic backgrounds. At one point, l i edetector tests, with their questionableveracity and potential for probing intopersonal matters, were to be required enmasse—an order that was modified later.

Perhaps most serious were visa andhiring delays and denials for scientists andstudents born in China, India and other

Mariam Akbarshani takes notes in a Humanities class atChicago’s Harry S. Truman College, where students from 110different countries are enrolled.

N A T I O N A L

Brain imaging researcher Michelle Espy finds it“disheartening” that tightened security has slowed hiringat the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

UNIVERSITY CENTERS, w h e r eseveral colleges and universities

form partnerships to offer courses anddegree programs at a single location,are becoming popular as Sun Beltstates try to cope with rapidly growinge n r o l l m e n t s. Nellie Carr Th o r o g o o d , avice chancellor of the North HarrisMontgomery Community CollegeD i s t r i c t , was instrumental in startingone of these centers in the Houstons u b u r b s. (See page 8.)

Yet during a recent Humanities 201c l a s s, the Oxford-educated theologianseemed unfazed by the task ahead of him.“ To d a y,” Gibson announced in his clippedBritish accent, as he paced around thec l a s s r o o m ,“ w e ’re actually going to attemptto do philosophy!”

Then Gibson made a brave move, c o n-sidering the class makeup: one Ko s o v oA l b a n i a n , one Bosnian, a young Islamicwoman dressed in traditional head-cov-ering and skirt, several devout A f r i c a n

Many foreign-bornscientists and engi n e e rsbelieve they have comeunder suspicion solelybecause of their ethnic

b a ck gr o u n d s. countries labeled as “ s e n s i t i v e ” by theState Department. Like many of the na-t i o n ’s campuses and industries, Los A l a-mos has come to depend increasingly onyounger staff scientists—most of themnaturalized American citizens—withadvanced training from such countries.

“ I t ’s been the most difficult year in LosAlamos’ history,” lab director Jo h n

Page 2 C R O SSTALK

ELEVEN MID-CAREER PRO F E S S I O NA L S have been selected as the firstProgram Associates by the National Center for Public Po l i cy and Higher Education.

The Associates program, supported by the Ford Fo u n d a t i o n , is designed to engagescholars and leaders interested in addressing current public policy issues in highereducation through involvement in the work of the National Center.

The Associates will attend two policy symposia a year and will contribute in otherways to the National Center’s agenda and activities.

The first group of Associates includes faculty members, postdoctoral students, g r a d u a t estudents and early- to mid-career professionals in policy-related positions in stategovernment and foundations.

NAT I O NAL CENTER PERSONNEL helped to plan the annual education financeseminar of the National Conference of State Legislatures, which was held in Napa Va l l e y,C a l i f o r n i a , last February 18-20.

Among the speakers were Patrick M. Callan and Joni Fi n n e y, president and vice

NEWSFROM THE CENTER

president of the National Center, and David W. B r e n e m a n , dean of the Curry School ofEducation at the University of Vi r g i n i a , who has worked with the Center frequently.

A PRO S P E C T U S that describes the National Center’s forthcoming state-by-statereport card on higher education is now available. The report card, which will be releasedthis fall, will be the first to compare and evaluate each state’s higher educationp e r f o r m a n c e.

The goal of the report card is to assist state leaders in assessing the performance ofhigher education in their state compared to other states, and to promote public policiesthat enhance opportunity and achievement in higher education. The report card willemphasize s t a t e performance because it is at the state level that the most significanthigher education policy decisions are made.

The prospectus can be downloaded from the National Center’s Web site atw w w. h i g h e r e d u c a t i o n . o r g. Single copies also can be obtained by faxing a request to (408)2 7 1 - 2 6 9 7 .◆

Jared L. BleakDoctoral candidate, Graduate Schoolof Education, Harvard University

Walter A. BrownAssistant Professor, Higher EducationAdministration and Finance, George Washington University

Laura Greene KnappEducation Research Consultant,Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Donald E. HellerAssistant Professor of Education, Centerfor the Study of Higher and PostsecondaryEducation, University of Michigan

Mario C. MartinezAssistant Professor, Graduate School ofEducation, New Mexico State University

Lillian Montoya-RaelDeputy Director, New MexicoCommission on Higher Education

Nicole S. NorflesDoctoral candidate, Graduate School ofEducation and Human Development,George Washington University

Travis J. ReindlPolicy Analyst, American Association ofState Colleges and Universities

Gavin A. SammsDoctoral candidate, Kennedy School ofGovernment, Harvard University

Gerardo E. de los SantosVice President, League for Innovation inthe Community Colleges

LETTER TO THE EDITORE d i t o r :

U n f o r t u n a t e l y, in the article titled “A f t e rAffirmative A c t i o n ,” that appeared in yourw i n t e r, 2 0 0 0 , i s s u e, Cliff A d e l m a n , s e n i o rresearcher at the U. S. Department of Edu-c a t i o n , misrepresented the mission andpurpose of the TRIO Upward Program.The number one objective of the T R I OUpward Program is not the developmentof social skills, and the turnover rate is notas horrendous as referenced in the article.

Upward Bound helps young studentsfrom low-income families prepare forhigher education. Participants receive in-struction in literature, c o m p o s i t i o n ,m a t h e-matics and science on college campusesafter school, on Saturdays and during thes u m m e r. C u r r e n t l y, 772 programs are inoperation throughout the United States.

Mathematics Po l i cy Research is in theprocess of following 2,800 students whowere randomly selected to participate in 67Upward Bound projects nationally. At the

time of their last report, about 22 percenof the students in the study had enterec o l l e g e, while most remained in higs c h o o l . Sixty percent of the students whhad been enrolled in Upward Bound, a n dwere of an age to have graduated fromhigh school, had enrolled in college. This imore than double the college enrollmenrate of low-income students nationally.

The TRIO Upward Bound programhave been helping low-income, d i s a dvantaged students overcome class, s o c i a l ,academic and cultural barriers to education since 1965. These programs havstrong bipartisan support in Congress anare held in high regard throughout thhigher education community.

Arnold L. M i t c h e m ,P h . D.P r e s i d e n t , Council for Opportunity i

E d u c a t i o nWa s h i n g t o n , D. C.

Innovative Leadership Aw a rdThis award has been established by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning

(CAEL) and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education to encourage andsupport leadership and innovation in American higher education. It recognizes individualswho have demonstrated the potential to foster major changes in higher education thatwill result in improvements that benefit students. It is named for, and honors, Virginia B.Smith, who has made extraordinary contributions as an innovative leader.

The Steering Committee overseeing the annual competition seeks a wide and diverserange of applications and nominations.

For further information on the award, application procedures and criteria, pleaseconsult either of the following web sites: www.cael.org or www.highereducation.org.

The award recipient will be selected in the fall and announced in November. A stipendof $2,500 will accompany the award.

Center Program Associates

Page 3C R O SSTALK

Patrick M. Callan P re s i d e n t

Joni E. FinneyVice Pre s i d e n t

William TrombleySenior Editor

Kristin D. ConklinD i re c t o r, Washington Off i c e

Donna DouglassAdministrative Off i c e r

William DoyleSenior Policy Analyst

Thad NodineD i rector of Communications

Cerena Sweetland-GilR e s e a rch Associate

Noreen SavelleExecutive Assistant

Sue MurphyAdministrative Assistant

Todd SalloEditing and Production, National Cro s s Ta l k

Board of Dire c t o r sCH A I R M A N

The Honorable James B. Hunt Jr.

ME M B E R S

Patrick M.CallanThe Honorable Garrey Carruthers

Ramon C. C o r t i n e s

D o l o res E. C r o s sThe Honorable Jim Edgar

Thomas EhrlichRoger A .E n r i c o

Clark Ke r r

Arturo MadridRobert H. M c C ab e

Paul F. M i l l e r, J r.The Honorable Howard “ Pete” Raw l i n g s

John Brooks Slaughter

Virginia B. S m i t hThomas J.Ti e r n ey

Uri Tre i s m a nHarold M.Wi l l i a m s

National CrossTalk is a publication of theNational Center for Public Policy and Higher

Education, 152 North Third Street, Suite 705, SanJose, CA, 95112. Phone: (408) 271-2699;

Fax: (408)271-2697; e-mail address:center@highereducation.org; web site:

www.highereducation.org.Washington Office: 1001 Connecticut Avenue,

Suite 310, Washington, D.C. 20036. Phone: (202)822-6720; Fax: (202) 822-6730.

The primary purpose of National CrossTalk isto stimulate informed discussion and debate of

higher education issues. The publication’s articlesand opinion pieces are written independently ofthe National Center’s policy positions and those

of its board members.

Subscriptions to National CrossTalkare free and can be obtained by writing a

letter or sending a fax or e-mail to the San Joseaddresses listed above.

AF R I CAN A M E R I CAN A N DHispanic parents value highereducation even more than their

white counterparts, although their childrenparticipate in it less, a new national surveyhas found.

When parents of high school studentswere asked what is most vital for a suc-cessful life, 65 percent of Hispanics, and 47percent of African A m e r i c a n s, said a col-lege education was the most importantf a c t o r, while only 33 percent of white par-ents agreed. White parents placed almostequal importance on “knowing how to getalong with people” and “a good work eth-i c.”

Two-thirds of white parents surveyedsaid there still are ways to succeed in A m e-rican life without a college education, b u tonly 54 percent of African American par-e n t s, and 34 percent of Hispanics, a g r e e dwith that statement.

Despite this strong belief in the impor-tance of higher education, Hispanics and

African Americans attend colleges anduniversities in much smaller numbers thanw h i t e s.

Forty-one percent of whites betweenthe ages of 18 and 24 enroll in some kind ofpostsecondary education, but only 30percent of African Americans of the samea g e, and 22 percent of Hispanics, join them,according to U. S. Census figures.

Deborah Wa d s w o r t h , president ofPublic A g e n d a , which conducted thes u r v e y, warned that this disparityposed a potential problem forAmerican higher education. “ Th erising aspirations of these minoritygroups are closely intertwined withtheir hopes of educating the nextg e n e r a t i o n ,” Wadsworth said. “If aneconomic downturn makes access tohigher education more difficult forminority groups, then the dashedhopes that follow could be especiallyd i s h e a r t e n i n g.”

Public Agenda is a nonprofit,nonpartisan research organizationthat regularly reports on publicattitudes about major policy issues.This survey was sponsored by theNational Center for Public Po l i cyand Higher Education, of San Jo s e,C a l i f o r n i a , and the Institute forResearch in Higher Education, aresearch center at the University ofP e n n s y l v a n i a .

The survey included telephoneinterviews with 1,015 members ofthe general public, as well as an“ o v e r s a m p l e ” of more than 600

Racial DivideA new national survey explores attitudes toward higher education

African A m e r i c a n , Hispanic and whiteparents of high school students.

The report was written by John Immer-w a h r,who is a senior research fellow at Pub-lic Agenda and associate vice president foracademic affairs at Villanova University.It isavailable through the Public Agenda We bs i t e :h t t p : / / w w w. p u b l i c a g e n d a . o r g.

“In our conversations and surveys withAmericans from all parts of the country, i thas become clear that in today’s boominghigh-tech economy, a college education hasreplaced the high school diploma as thegateway to the middle class,” I m m e r w a h rw r o t e.

Seventy-seven percent of those sur-veyed said that a college education is moreimportant now than it was ten years ago,and 87 percent said a college educationwas as important as a high school diplomaused to be.

“ Today you don’t even question whe-ther you are going to college,” said a NewJersey woman who participated in one ofeight focus groups that helped to shape thesurvey questions.“ I t ’s the sign of the times.When I was growing up, what was im-portant was to make the home front, w i t hmarriage and children, but today it is col-l e g e.”

If anything, minority parents feel evenmore strongly about the need for edu-cation beyond high school.

“ Why is college important?” asked anAfrican American woman attending a Chi-cago focus group.“It is the way that societyis set up.We are the underdog already, so ifyou don’t have a college education, it isanother thing against you.”

At a focus group in El Paso, a Hispanicfather of a high school student said,“ E v e r ytime I spoke to [my kids] after they wereb a b i e s, I said, ‘After you finish college, t h e nyou can start thinking about what you wantto do.’ I think it served me well. It did open

d o o r s.”Other key findings of the survey in-

c l u d e :

• Ninety-three percent said the nationshould not allow cost to keep qualifiedand motivated students from attendingc o l l e g e.

• The general public believes financial aidshould be provided for students whocannot afford college, but they alsothink students should pay for part oftheir education and that financial aid

should go only to those “who workhard and seem to take individual re-s p o n s i b i l i t y,” in the words of the report.

• Seventy-three percent believe thatcolleges and universities must do moreto cut costs and improve efficiency,while 60 percent think administratorsshould keep tuition fees from rising.

• Although 69 percent of parentssurveyed said they were either “ v e r y ”or “ s o m e w h a t ” worried about payingfor college, 93 percent said they “ w i l lfind a way to work out the costs.”

— William Tr o m b l e y

Despite a strong beliefin the importance of

higher education,Hispanics and A f r i c a n

Americans attendc o l l eges and

u n iv e rsities in muchsmaller numbers than

wh i t e s.Eighty-seven percentof those surveyed saida college education

was as important as ahigh school diploma

used to be.

American Baptists, others from Vi e t n a m ,R u s s i a , Tu r k e y, E t h i o p i a , El Salvador,U k r a i n e, N i g e r i a , Yu g o s l a v i a , C h i n a ,L i b e r i a , P a k i s t a n , I n d i a , U z b e k i s t a n —

Page 4 C R O SSTALK

thought about those questions, and saishe planned to discuss them with hemother that night.

Th a t ’s the kind of thing Jeffrey Gibsolikes to hear. He knows that few of histudents actually will graduate from Tr um a n , but he considers himself successful ihe sees his students engaged in a discus

sion after class, or if they take the time task him questions. Last year, fewer thaten percent of the school’s 2,756 studentwho were enrolled in the college crediprogram earned associate degrees; a n other 459 earned one-year certificates.

The statistics generated by all seven othe City Colleges of Chicago appear evemore dismal: of 48,684 students enrolled i

many of them places that had sufferedmassive destruction and death as a resultof religious and ethnic wars, in some casesbetween one another.

N o n e t h e l e s s, Gibson plunged ahead.“Does God exist?” he asked them. All buttwo of the students raised their hands to

indicate yes. But when Gibson pressedthem on the details—Is God omnipre-sent? Does God have a gender? DoesGod have emotions? If God is all-know-i n g, then why did he create evil?—theyw e r e n ’t nearly so clear about their beliefs.

Reeling off references and citationsfrom Thomas A q u i n a s, S t . Au g u s t i n e, t h eBible and the Ko r a n , as well as historicalinformation about various religions, with afew jokes thrown in for good measure,Gibson pointed out that many of the stu-dents’ beliefs came from later writings andi n t e r p r e t a t i o n s. He taught them terms:o m n i p o t e n t , o m n i s c i e n t ,t h e i s t , deist andh e n o t h e i s t . At the end of the hour- a n d -twenty-minute class, he summed up hisp o i n t :“ To simply say God exists or doesn’tis rather naive.” To argue the existence ofG o d , he said, you have to consider all ofthe questions he had introduced.

That was a new concept for Nazni Ban-g a i , a 20-year-old Sikh Indian A m e r i c a nstudying computer programming. N a z n iwas too shy to contribute to the class dis-c u s s i o n , because she said most people hadnever heard of the Sikh religion. But afterclass she acknowledged she never had

Critics argue that theC h i c a go City College s,

like urban two-yearc o l l eges across the

c o u n t ry, need a seriouso v e r h a u l .

C h i c a g ocontinued from page 1

IT IS 6:30 IN THE MORNING on achilly March day, and inside her base-

ment apartment, Sandra Rowe is trying torouse Asia with gentle kisses. The one-y e a r-old isn’t cooperating—she didn’t getto sleep until three, which means Sandrad i d n ’t ,e i t h e r.

But motherhood never has stopped 29-y e a r-old Sandra from pursuing her edu-c a t i o n . She was 14 when she gave birth toher first son,A n t o i n e ; 19 when she had hers e c o n d ,A . J. ; and attended class until theday before she went into labor with A s i a .And she doesn’t plan on giving up now.

So Sandra has already showered anddressed—today it’s just a pair of blacks w e a t p a n t s, a black sweatshirt and a Mal-

colm X College baseball cap—and walkedfour of her five dogs. She has to get toMalcolm X College early, so she can finishup some work before her 9:30 U. S. H i s t o r yc l a s s.

“I wanted better things for myself,” s h es a i d , referring to the crime, gang and drugproblems that are so prevalent in herpoverty-stricken neighborhood on Chica-g o ’s West Side. “And I knew I needed adegree to get them.”

Hanging on the wall at the head ofS a n d r a ’s bed are half a dozen certificates, aframed chronology of her achievements atthe City Colleges of Chicago. Th e r e ’s herbasic nursing certificate (CNA ) , her prac-

A Day in the LifeCity Colleges of Chicago student strives to better herself

tical nursing certificate (LPN), and herpharmacology certificate, all from DawsonTechnical Institute, an arm of Ke n n e d y -King College. Th e r e, t o o, are her perfect-attendance certificate from Dawson; alicense from the National Phlebotomy A s-s o c i a t i o n ; and her membership certificatefrom Phi Theta Kappa, the national honors o c i e t y, at Malcolm X College; plus a cer-tificate she received after serving jury duty.

The vast majority of Sandra’s class-mates at Malcolm X are looking at barerw a l l s. Of 4,360 students enrolled in creditprograms at Malcolm X in 1999, only 247earned associate degrees. Another 68 stu-dents earned one-year advanced certifi-c a t e s. Twenty-five others earned basicc e r t i f i c a t e s, which require about 20 credith o u r s. Transfer rates are also low, t h o u g hi m p r o v i n g : That same year, at least 345former Malcolm X students transferred tof o u r-year institutions, up from 180 in 1992,according to the school’s own data.

Critics point to those low graduationand transfer rates as evidence that Mal-colm X, like the other six City Colleges ofC h i c a g o, is failing. Malcolm X PresidentZerrie Campbell vehemently disagrees.She says you have to understand the con-text in which the school and its studentso p e r a t e, to appreciate its accomplishments.Eighty-four percent of the school’s nearly20,000 students are minorities (like San-d r a , 58 percent are black, another 26percent are Hispanic); 57 percent are wo-m e n ; 52 percent are between the ages of21 and 39. M a n y, if not most, are parents.And like Sandra, two thirds of the studentsin credit courses receive financial aid. Ahigh percentage of the students who comedirectly from the Chicago public highschools have to take remedial courses.

“ They have so much confronting

t h e m … i t ’s a wonder that they’r eable to complete a course, l e talone a degree,” said Campbell,referring to the financial, e d u c a-tional and social challenges thather students face.

“ We ’ve had students whohave come in, and they’re greatstudents academically, but maybet h e y ’ve ended up homeless. O rmaybe they’re victims ofdomestic violence,” said ReneeS u g g s, senior academic adviser inthe college’s Advising andTransfer Services Center, a n dherself a Malcolm X alum. S u g g ssaid that a statewide articulationi n i t i a t i v e, combined with theavailability of information on theInternet and a new attempt byher office to contact all students,regardless of whether they planto transfer, has increased the number ofstudents who decide to continue theire d u c a t i o n . But she said there are thingsthat are beyond the school’s control.

“ To work in this kind of environment,you have to love what you do,” said Suggs.“Because there are so many disappoint-ments along the way.”

Sandra Rowe is one of the brightspots—an example of what the system cando for a student who has the ability to takeadvantage of what it offers.

Once Asia is fully awake, Sandra car-ries her up the back stairs of the graystone,past the first-floor apartment the familyrents out, and up to the small, s e c o n d - f l o o rapartment where Sandra’s parents live.Her father, a retired factory worker, is stillin bed; A . J. and his cousin are asleep in ahide-a-bed in the living room; her motheris at the sewing machine in front of the

television with Sandra’s two young nieces,who live next door but come over everymorning for breakfast. The state paysS a n d r a ’s mother, Lillie Rowe, to providechild-care for Sandra’s children and five ofS a n d r a ’s nieces and nephews.

Lillie Rowe finished tenth grade; S a n-d r a ’s father finished seventh. Only one ofS a n d r a ’s 12 siblings attended college, a n dhe never graduated. If Sandra has her way,she will be the first in her family to gradu-ate from college, and that pleases her mo-t h e r. “I feel that she will be able to takecare of her family in the future,” said LillieR o w e.

Th a t ’s Sandra’s hope, t o o. “ The educa-tion that I have now—at best I would beable to make 28, 30 thousand dollars ay e a r,” noted Sandra.“I got three kids.Th i r-ty thousand isn’t enough money.”

In May, s h e ’ll complete her nursing

“I wanted betterthings for my s e l f . A n d

I knew I needed ad egree to get them.”

— SA N D R A ROW E

Nursing student Sandra Rowe expects to finishher work at Truman College this spring andtransfer to a four-year college in the fall.

Instructor Louise Fredman teaches English as a Second Language to recently arriv e di m m i gr a n t s. Truman Community College students speak 58 different language s.

measurement of success because of thestrong link between educationalachievement and increased earnings.

But defenders of the City Colleges ofChicago cry foul. Given the system’s multi-faceted mission, as well as its “ w o e f u l l yu n e d u c a t e d ” student body, as one admi-nistrator described it, it is unfair—and eli-tist—to measure the system’s success by

graduation rates alone, they say.City Colleges Chancellor Wayne Wa t-

son actually laughed at the mention ofO r f i e l d ’s name. “He would always comeup with some theoretical research,” Wa t-son said by way of dismissing the formerUniversity of Chicago professor. “It had

Page 5C R O SSTALK

D e f e n d e rs of the CityC o l l eges of Chicagobelieve it is unfair tomeasure the system’ssuccess by gr a d u a t i o n

rates alone.

continued next page

prerequisites and earn an advanced phle-botomy certificate at Malcolm X College.In Au g u s t , she will transfer to a nearbyprivate college, which has offered her a$5,000 scholarship to complete her bache-lor of science degree in nursing. S h eshould finish by the fall of 2001.

For now, t h o u g h , she spends her timecommuting the three miles between herhouse and Malcolm X College on thec i t y ’s Near West Side. Once located nearthe heart of a ghetto, Malcolm X’s three-story glass-and-steel building is now on theedge of a rapidly changing neighborhood,the result of gentrification pushingwestward from downtown. The UnitedC e n t e r, where the Chicago Bulls play andMichael Jordan made himself a householdn a m e, is one block north; just south of theschool is a large hospital district, w h e r eSandra hopes to work someday.

For students like Sandra, Malcolm X isa godsend: It provides a low-cost, c l o s e - t o -home education in a small, nurturing set-t i n g. She loves it. “I can give you a wholebunch of reasons why,” Sandra said. “ B u tmainly it’s because everyone there is sofriendly and down to earth. And they’r er e a l l y, l i k e, c l o s e - k n i t . And if something isgoing on, everyone rallies together to tryto help you solve that problem.”

Sandra can pay her tuition with a feder-al Pell Grant ($1,500 per semester), a n dlive off child support plus the $410 amonth she earns working part-time in thes c h o o l ’s public relations department.Thanks to the fact that she lives rent-free,this year she’ll have enough left over totreat herself to a vacation.

At 7:30 A M, Sandra is the first one inthe college’s administrative offices. S h etakes her seat at her desk beneath theposter of Malcolm X—one of manyreminders of the black activist for whomthe school was renamed in 1969 (It hadbeen founded in 1911 in another locationas Crane Junior College). The most pro-minent monument—certainly the most

unique—is Malcolm X’s 1965 Oldsmobile9 8 , which is parked in the front hallway.

At 9:25 A M, after two hours of officew o r k , Sandra heads upstairs for her fa-vorite class,U. S. H i s t o r y.

The history textbook is pretty standard-i s s u e, but the professor, Zetta Cowsen, i sn o t . “I hated history all my life. And now Ilove it, thanks to Professor Cowsen,” s a i dS a n d r a , who credits Cowsen with makinghistory relevant and comprehensible. O nthis day, for instance, Cowsen takes offfrom the reading—about the taxes theBritish imposed on the Colonies—andstarts a lively discussion among the dozen-plus students about how much federalcontrol is desirable and appropriate.

Cowsen is retiring this year after 31years of teaching at Malcolm X. B a c kwhen she started, she said,“everything wasr a d i c a l i z e d ,” and the curriculum was moreculturally oriented, with lots of emphasison black studies and community projects.Despite low graduation rates and harshcriticisms of the City Colleges, she remainsconvinced they’re doing a fine job. “ I ’ mnot at all discouraged. I t ’s been thegreatest thing I could have done,” s a i d

C o w s e n , who also teaches a second U. S.History class that Sandra takes, as well asEconomics and Po l i t i c s, in which her stu-dents are learning about the stock marketby mock investing.

After history, i t ’s off to Biology 120,Medical Te r m i n o l o g y, where about a do-zen students are listening to their instruc-tor and scribbling down the parts of theh e a r t :v e i n s, a r t e r i e s, v e n t r i c l e s. The schoolprides itself on its healthcare training. O n eanecdote that college President ZerrieCampbell loves to tell is about the timeshe almost passed out in a faculty meetingand had to be transported to a local hos-p i t a l . The two ambulance paramedicshappened to be Malcolm X alums. So wasthe admitting nurse at the hospital. S o, t o o,was the phlebotomist who drew her blood,and the radiologist who took her X-rays.And that wasn’t all: Both the orderly andthe licensed practical nurse who attendedto her had applied to Malcolm X’s regis-tered nursing program.

“ We ’re doing such wonderful things!”enthused Campbell, who said the schoolhad a 90 percent employment rate for itshealthcare training programs. “But we

d o n ’t do a very good job of telling our sto-r y.”

In the afternoon and evening, S a n d r aparticipates in two focus groups, part of aneffort by the district administration todiscover areas of satisfaction and weak-ness in each of the seven City Colleges.The overwhelming consensus is no differ-ent from President Campbell’s : G r a d u a-tion rates and criticisms notwithstanding,the school is doing a good job.

In the hours between the focus groups,Sandra finishes up the spreadsheet she hadstarted that morning: an inventory of adsthe college has placed in an effort to boostits sagging enrollment.

Sandra doesn’t leave the school untilafter seven o’clock. S h e ’s already beenawake for 14 hours, but she’s not done yet:She heads to a kick-boxing class—part ofher weight-reduction program. By thetime she gets home, Asia and her othertwo children have already eaten dinner.Sandra makes sure she is the last thingthey see before they go to sleep, and thenshe has a few hours to herself before shegoes to bed and gets up to do it all overa g a i n .

Sandra doesn’t have much time left as astudent at Malcolm X. But once she hascompleted her degree in nursing, s h ed o e s n ’t plan to go far: She wants to raiseher kids in her old neighborhood, a n dhopes to work at Cook County Hospital,just across the expressway from MalcolmX College. I t ’s a place, she says, where shecan keep learning.

Most of all, she wants to be a goodp a r e n t .

“I want to be a good example for myc h i l d r e n . I want them to understand theyhave to work hard for anything they wantin life,” said Sandra.“Nothing comes easy.”

—Kathy Wi t k ow s ky

Sandra Rowe juggles college, a job and caring for her three children—Antoine,holding Asia, and A.J.—as she pursues a nursing degree.

credit programs, only 1,931—less than fivepercent—earned two- year degrees lasty e a r ; 1,041 others completed a one-yearadvanced certificate. During the previousf a l l , only 2,082 former City Colleges stu-dents—also less than five percent of thed i s t r i c t ’s total credit enrollment—trans-ferred to four-year schools in Illinois. Th edistrict does not keep figures on studentswho transfer out of state.

The experience of the Chicago city col-leges is not much different from that ofurban two-year colleges across the coun-t r y. Critics point to paltry graduation andtransfer rates as proof that these systemsare broken and need a serious overhaul.

“ We call it ‘pretend college,’ ” said GaryO r f i e l d , a professor of education and so-cial policy at Harvard University. In thelate 1980s and early ’90s, Orfield wroteseveral comprehensive studies of the CityColleges of Chicago. All were highly cri-tical of the system, and one was so nega-tive that the agency that commissioned itnever published the report.“It can actuallyharm people by taking years of their livesand....not giving them anything thatincreases their marketability or ways to

improve their lives,” Orfield said in ani n t e r v i e w.

“ The Revolving Door: City Colleges ofChicago 1980–89,” a 1991 study thatOrfield oversaw, estimated that fewer thanten percent of City Colleges students incollege credit programs finished either aone-year advanced certification or a two-year degree. N a t i o n a l l y, among the 1,132community colleges, the rate of comple-tion is 22 percent at their first institution; atotal of 37 percent at any institution. Th eOrfield study also estimated that only twopercent of City Colleges students enrolledin transfer programs would earn a bache-l o r ’s degree six years later. N a t i o n a l l y, 2 2percent of 1989–90 community collegestudents transferred to four-year institu-tions within five years.

“ I t ’s the best-kept dirty little secretthere is,” said Jack Wu e s t , executive direc-tor of Alternative Schools Network, a non-profit educational and advocacy organi-z a t i o n . “I think community colleges don’treally have to hide (the graduation rates),because nobody really asks. And if theyd i d , I think they’d be appalled.” Wu e s t ,Orfield and others say a degree is the best

no contact with reality.”The reality, Watson said, is that “ m y

students are running a 120-yard race andhis students are running 100 yards. Westart 20 to 40 yards back from where hisstudents start.” Nearly a third of all creditstudents at the City Colleges have to takeone or more remedial classes. The num-bers are worse for students coming direct-ly from Chicago public high schools: Th e i rhigh school diplomas notwithstanding, 9 0percent of them can’t place into a college-level math class.

“ The thing about the City Colleges thathas to be remembered is that we do haveto serve a greater developmental role thanother colleges do,” said B. J. Wa l k e r, one ofChicago Mayor Richard Daley’s deputychiefs of staff. “If you have an emergencyroom it’s kind of like blaming you for peo-ple coming in and bleeding to death. S o m eof its role is to stop people from bleedingto death.”

A university’s mission is to graduatep e o p l e, Watson said. But that’s only oneaspect of the City Colleges of Chicagom i s s i o n , he said, and therefore not a very

continued next page

Page 6 C R O SSTALK

C h i c a g o, though only 49,000of them were taking collegecredit courses. The system isof crucial importance form i n o r i t i e s : More than half ofthe state’s black andHispanic community collegestudents are enrolled at theCity Colleges.

The broad mission com-plicates the colleges’ task,and makes it a challenge tomeasure their success. Fo ri n s t a n c e, a number of stu-dents in Jeffrey Gibson’s Hu-manities 201 class are simply“ c o u r s e - t a k e r s,” u n i n t e r e s t e din a degree, according to aquestionnaire Gibson han-ded out at the beginning ofthe semester. Some want totransfer to a four-year in-s t i t u t i o n . But others indicatetheir goal is to improve theirE n g l i s h . One said he justwanted “to gain knowledge.”

“ We use the communitycolleges for ad hoc purpo-s e s,” noted Clifford A d e l-m a n , a senior research ana-lyst at the U. S. D e p a r t m e n tof Education, and an ardentdefender of community col-l e g e s. “And that reflects thenature of our society.”

Adelman said studies now show that 60percent of undergraduate students attendtwo or more schools, and that 40 percentof those students cross state lines in thep r o c e s s. Community colleges don’t haveany way of tracking this highly mobilestudent population, he said, so judgingschools based on institutional data is out-m o d e d .I n s t e a d , he said, the only way toacquire accurate information is to followstudents through a lifetime of education—something that community colleges don’thave the ability to do.

“I love my students!” enthused EliseG o r u n , who has taught at City Collegessince 1971, and currently teaches an A f r i-can American literature class at Tr u m a n .Gorun said she had tremendous respectand admiration for her students, many ofw h o m , she said, are pursuing their educa-tion despite tremendous obstacles: f i n a n-c i a l , family- and health-related.

“Against all the odds—some of thembarely have money in their pocket—theyget up and come here,” said Gorun.During her course, she not only introducesher students to a wide range of A f r i c a nAmerican authors through poems andshort stories, she also teaches them aboutAfrican American culture. In March, f o ri n s t a n c e, she arranged to take her class toan African American exhibit at the A r tInstitute of Chicago, where she offered tohire a guide with her own money. S h esuspected that many of her students hadnever been there before.

“I see [the community college] as ag a t e w a y, as a place where people haveh o p e,” Gorun said. “Some of my studentsdo very well and will get their degrees.And some will not. But whatever length oftime they’re here is meaningful for them.”

During a recent classroom poetry exer-

accurate measure of its success. “I don’thave the luxury of being a university,where my goal is just one thing,” s a i dWa t s o n . Besides its so-called “ t r a n s f e r ”m i s s i o n , once its main focus, City Collegesalso must provide vocational and occupa-tional training, remedial education (nowknown as “ d e v e l o p m e n t a l ” ) , Adult BasicS k i l l s, and “ v a l u e - a d d e d ” education innon-credit courses, he said.

Wandering in and out of the classroomsin the two glass, steel and brick buildingsthat make up the Truman College campus,you can find a staggering array of subjectsbeing taught. There are the usual English,

History and Math—subjects generallyassociated with a college. There are alsocourses designed for students who plan tojoin the workforce with two-year degreesin nursing,marketing and business.

Then there are the vocational offerings,like a six-month course in Major HomeAppliance Repair. On a recent spring day,14 students, all men, were sitting at theirdesks surrounded by malfunctioning frid-g e s, washing machines and driers, l o o k i n gat an overhead projection of an oven cir-c u i t .“ Yo u ’ve got to rely on voltage mea-s u r e m e n t s, f o l k s,” instructor Richard A b r a-hamson told them. “If you don’t force aconclusion with your volt meter, y o u ’ll beordering the customer the wrong part.”

Graduates of this particular programhave a nearly 100 percent employmentr a t e,Abrahamson said.“In six months, I ’ mable to get them a job that can make themgood money,” he said. After three to fiveyears in the field, his graduates can earnbetween $30,000 and $50,000 a year.Tr u m a n ’s Technical Center also offers

automotive mechanics and cosmetologyp r o g r a m s, in both English and Spanish.

But that’s not all.Nearly one third of allstudents in the City Colleges of Chicago—more than sixty thousand students—are inthe non-credit Adult Learning Skills Pro-gram (ALSP), which includes grammarand high school-level classes as well asEnglish as a Second Language.

S o, in another classroom, a couple do-zen immigrants are learning to say, “ M yEnglish is not so good.” Some of themhave only been in the United States aweek or two, and they’re as fresh andeager as the Robin Williams character in“Moscow on the Hudson.”

In yet another, instructor Earl Silbar isexplaining how to structure an essay ac-cording to General Educational Develop-ment (GED) testing standards so hisstudents can pass a high school equiva-l e n cy exam.

“ You have to be sensitive about howyou approach things,” said Silbar, who hasbeen teaching GED courses for more than20 years. Twice Silbar has used the policeas a topic of classroom conversation, a n dtwice students left his classroom and nevercame back. Later he found out why: B o t hhad family members who had been shotdead by police. Silbar learned his lesson.Today he uses more non-controversial to-p i c s, like “Is it better to be an only child?”to demonstrate how to take and defend aposition in an essay.

If it sounds like the school is trying tobe all things to all people, y o u ’re not faro f f. Originally designed to provide the firsttwo years of a four-year education, c o m-munity colleges have in many casesbecome a refuge for students who can’tsucceed—or afford to go—elsewhere.“ What other entity would serve that pop-u l a t i o n ? ” asked Truman College PresidentPhoebe Helm.

No wonder one administrator referredto the system as “Last Chance U”—amoniker that Chancellor Watson did notd i s p u t e. “ Th a t ’s one of the things we are, i sLast Chance U,” said Wa t s o n , who wasappointed in 1998, the system’s thirdchancellor in ten years. But also, he said,“ We ’re the college of first choice forcitizens of Chicago, because more studentscome to us than anywhere else in the city.”

Last year, more than 157,000 peoplewere enrolled in classes at City Colleges of

c i s e, Gorun instructed her students tcomplete the sentence, “I am…” W r o t eone young African American man, “I amthe beholder of expectations and famild r e a m s.”

Harvard professor Orfield said one othe saddest things about the system is thway it deceives its students into thinkint h e y ’re more prepared than they realla r e. “All these kids think they’re going tget four-year degrees and graduate degrees and have a great life,” he said. “ P e ople have aspirations that they have nbackground for. People want to be scientists who haven’t taken geometry.” Th u sthe so-called “cooling off” t h e o r y, he saidwhich posits that community colleges’ rolis to cool, or reduce, aspirations rathethan raise them.

Faculty have their own ways of dealinwith the issue, measuring success in smaw a y s. “ I ’ve had students come in whd i d n ’t know how to use an index at thback of a book or find a book using a can u m b e r,” said Truman College librariaLeone McDermott. “And so I show themhow to do that. That may not be collegelevel work, but they leave knowing morthan they did when they walked in.

“Someone once described this as a glorified high school,” continued McDermot“And I think that’s probably right. But iwe weren’t here, what would happen witall these people? It’s not like there’s anyplace else in the system they can go.”

A 1999 survey of the previous year’graduates indicated that nearly half othem were pursuing their education; i na d d i t i o n , 90 percent were employed eithefull- or part-time, earning an average o$12.32 an hour—equivalent to abou$25,500 a year. President Helm suggestethat the measure of City Colleges’ succes

O r i ginally designed toprovide the first twoy e a rs of a four- y e a r

e d u c a t i o n , c o m m u n i t yc o l l eges have in manycases become a refugefor students who can’tsucceed—or afford to

go — e l s e wh e r e.Truman College instructor Richard Abrahamson saysalmost all of the graduates of his home appliancerepair class get jobs.

from preceding page

By the NumbersCity Colleges of ChicagoNumber of colleges: seven (Richard J. D a l e y ; Ke n n e d y - K i n g ; Malcolm X; O l i v e - H a r v e y ;Harry S.Tr u m a n ; Harold Wa s h i n g t o n ;Wilbur W r i g h t )

Total enrollment (1999 fiscal ye a r ): 157,655 (headcount)

College credit enrollment: 48,684 (headcount)

Racial/ethnic mix: 38 percent African A m e r i c a n ; 30 percent Hispanic; 21 percent white;seven percent A s i a n ; four percent “ o t h e r ”

Operating budget (2000 fiscal ye a r ): $285 million

Tu i t i o n , per credit hour: $47.50 for Chicago residents; $140.36 for Illinois residents whodo not live in Chicago;$210.45 for out-of-state and foreign students.

fied high school juniors and seniors to earncollege credit in general education courses.So far, those programs are relatively small,with 825 and 54 students, r e s p e c t i v e l y,enrolled in the 1998–99 school year.

Watson boasted that he has “far ex-c e e d e d ” his goals for his first two years, b u treform advocates say Watson must gomuch further. Anne Ladkey, e x e c u t i v edirector of Women Employed, a non-pro-fit organization that works to advancew o m e n ’s economic status, s a i d ,“ What wewould like to see is that employers inChicago feel that they can rely on the CityColleges as a supplier of skilled workers. Id o n ’t think that’s a widespread percep-t i o n .”

Ladkey thinks that the adult learningskills programs should be better integratedwith workforce preparation. And she saidthat the schools need to better integratetheir transfer, vocational and basic educa-tional missions.

Chancellor Watson has his own ambi-tious set of goals. He wants to increaseacademic standards; increase the numberof students who enter the workforce fromthe vocational program; increase the num-ber of students who pass the GED, or highschool equivalency exam (In fiscal year1 9 9 9 , 1,771 of 4,435 GED students passed);and he wants to double the amount ofcustomized training the schools do (Th i sy e a r, City Colleges trained between 12,000and 14,000 people for 144 companies).Watson was not specific about how heplanned to achieve these goals.

M e a n w h i l e, the City Colleges faceanother problem: declining enrollments.Credit courses are an important source ofrevenue for each of the colleges, w h i c h

Page 7C R O SSTALK

More than half of thes t a t e ’s black and

Hispanic communityc o l l ege students areenrolled at the City

C o l l eges of Chicago .

should not be limited to graduates. I n-s t e a d , experts should look at a wage data-base of all so-called “ l e a v e r s,” that is, a n y-one who’s taken classes at the colleges.

No such database exists, but Helm isconvinced that it would show a strongcorrelation between increased wages andamount of education—even if the personnever graduated. For instance, she said, “ I fI get into a taxicab and ask where the dri-ver learned English, nine times out of tenthey learned it here.”Th a t ’s an example ofhow the system improves people’s lives ina very real way, she said. But the collegesd o n ’t get credit for it because the studentsa r e n ’t counted as graduates.

There are success stories at the CityColleges of Chicago. One of them is Tr u-man College alumnus Steven Luong, w h ograduated from Truman in 1997, and nowearns $40,000 per year as a computer pro-g r a m m e r.

In 1989, Luong immigrated to Chicagowith his parents and four of his five siblingsfrom their native Vi e t n a m . The family wasso poor that they didn’t even have the $14bus fare they needed to get to the publicaid office. For years, all seven of them livedin a three-room apartment in Chicago’st o u g h , multiethnic Uptown neighborhoodin the city’s Northside. But his father wasdetermined that the family should get ane d u c a t i o n , and soon they all were enrolledin classes at nearby Truman College.

Luong offered high praise for Tr u m a nC o l l e g e. “I am very proud to be a studentat Tr u m a n ,” he said, in his heavily accen-t e d , but precise, present-tense English.“ Th a t ’s why I’m a success,” he said. “A slong as you know how to work hard, s t u d yh a r d ,t h a t ’s why I have what I’ve got to-d a y.” Luong and his wife, also a computerp r o g r a m m e r, were the youngest couple ontheir block when they purchased theirhome in the neat, middle-class Chicagoneighborhood of Mayfair, a few miles westof Uptown.

But not every student has the drive andd e t e r m i n a t i o n , nor the family support, of aSteven Luong. Critics of the system say ithas to do better for all students.

The problem, said Harvard’s Orfield, i sa lack of accountability. Because the CityColleges are funded based on enrollment,not graduation rates, t h e r e ’s no incentive

to improve them, he said. “Everybody cancollect their money, and keep their jobs,the students can come in and go out, a n deverybody can feel they’re doing some-thing about education,” he said. “ S t u d e n t scan vanish without anyone knowing whathappens to them.”

P r i v a t e l y, others agree that the systemneeds a serious overhaul, but are afraid toalienate the current leadership with anypublic criticism. The City Colleges admini-strators have earned a reputation for beingextremely defensive, described by variouspeople familiar with them as “ p a r a n o i d ,”with a “fortress mentality.”

“Access to the system has been cut offin the past when outside groups and in-dividuals have criticized it,” said one advo-cate of reform, explaining the reluctanceto be quoted. “Criticism of the system isinterpreted as an attack. And that makesdiscussion and debate very difficult.”

But some critics have high hopes thatthe City Colleges are on the brink ofc h a n g e. Chicago Mayor Richard Daleyhas focused heavily on his highly toutedelementary and secondary school reform,and at least some education watchdogsfeel that he is poised to focus now onchanges needed at the City Colleges.

“ H i s t o r i c a l l y, there has not been a bigconnection between City Hall and the CityC o l l e g e s,” acknowledged B. J. Wa l k e r, m a y-oral aide. But Wa l k e r, who has a daughterattending Truman College, a d d e d ,“ O n c eyou decide that education K–12 isimportant to you as a mayor, you decidethe whole spectrum is.

“In order to have a viable city thesed a y s … y o u ’ve got to have a workforce[that companies] can tap into that has theskills they need,” Walker said. “And inorder to have that workforce and there-fore to support economic development inthe city, you have to go back to the begin-ning and develop the workforce.”

During his two years as chancellor,Wayne Watson has implemented severalc h a n g e s. For instance, students can’t earngraduation credits if they earn less than a Cgrade in general education or core classes.The colleges also are participating in astatewide articulation initiative aimed atfacilitating transfer from two-year schoolsto four-year institutions. So far, 51 articu-

lation agreements have beens i g n e d .

An ambitious K–16 initiativeseeks to devise a seamlesscurriculum to ease transitionsfrom Chicago public schools toCity Colleges, and from CityColleges on to four-year in-s t i t u t i o n s. As part of that ini-t i a t i v e, faculty are working onexit standards and curricula thatare in sync with four- y e a rs c h o o l s.

The City Colleges also areworking to heighten their pro-file in the Chicago publics c h o o l s. A program called Pro-ject Excel, for example, a l l o w spublic high school students toenroll in City Colleges voca-tional courses while still in highs c h o o l , while the CollegeBridge Program allows quali-

keep the tuition they generate. But en-rollment in credit courses has declinedfrom 66,948 in 1985 to 48,684 in 1999.( Total enrollment also declined during thesame period, from 209,016 to 157,655.)

Administrators suspect that the en-rollment decline is due in part to thestrong economy, which keeps potentialstudents employed and removes incen-tives to go to school. Charles Guengerich,president of Wilbur Wright College onC h i c a g o ’s northwest side, also speculatedthat the decrease in enrollment is an in-dication that the City Colleges haven’tdone enough to market themselves.

“ We have to be more aggressive in ourc o m m u n i t i e s, reaching out saying, ‘ This isthe value we bring to this community,’ ”said Guengerich, who noted that severalprivate institutions in the Chicago areahave started to lure students with expen-sive radio and television advertising cam-p a i g n s. During his recent State of the Col-lege speech, Guengerich implored facultyto help recruit potential students, e s p e-cially from area high schools.

But that’s not going to be easy. “ C i t yColleges has not enjoyed such a wonderfulr e p u t a t i o n ,” noted Elena Mulcahy, who isin charge of Truman College’s high school-college partnership program, an attemptto convince more Chicago Public HighSchool graduates to matriculate at CityC o l l e g e s. “ The best kids are going to beencouraged to go somewhere else.”

That might be one point on which bothcritics and defenders of the system coulda g r e e : The City Colleges play a differentrole than, s a y, the University of Illinois, t h es t a t e ’s flagship research university, or aprestigious private school like Northwes-tern University.

“If you don’t buy into the mission of acommunity college, and your only frame-work is a regular university, then it isn’tgoing to fit,” said Truman College Presi-dent Phoebe Helm. “If you buy into themission and then measure performance inrelation to that mission, then you findw e ’re doing a superb job.”◆

Freelance writer Kathy Wi t k ow s ky lives inM i s s o u l a ,M o n t a n a .

Tina Frankovich takes a painting class at TrumanCollege, one of the school’s popular non-creditcourses.

Truman College President Phoebe Helm defends the Chicago City Colleges againstcriticism that too few students graduate or transfer to four-year schools.

Page 8 C R O SSTALK

By William Tr o m b l eySenior Editor

TH E WO O D L A N D S, TE X A S

S IX O’CLOCK on a spring night, t h esky is darkening over Houston’snorthern suburbs, and students are

parking their cars and scurrying to the Uni-versity Center, a handsome building thatstands in the midst of Southern Pineg r o v e s. H e r e, six different universities offer50 bachelor’s and master’s degree pro-grams under the auspices of the NorthHarris Montgomery Community CollegeD i s t r i c t .

The unusual collaboration betweentwo-year and four-year institutions allowsstudents in this booming suburban area, 3 0miles north of downtown Houston,to com-plete their degrees without driving throughthe region’s massive traffic congestion toreach one of the six campuses.

“ This is all about access,” said GailE v a n s, executive director and dean of theUniversity Center. “ These are people whomight not finish their degree work if wew e r e n ’t here.”

Barbara Jo h n s o n , a 54-year-old businessadministration major who lives nearby,a g r e e d . Johnson worked as a bookkeeperwhile raising two daughters and “ n e v e rthought of going back to college—moneywas tight and you just never thought abouti t ,”she said.

Now the children are grown and Jo h n-s o n , with urging from her husband, d e c i d e d“I didn’t want to go back to the kind of jobI ’d had before.” She enrolled at SamHouston State University, in Huntsville, 4 0miles north of The Wo o d l a n d s, but hasbeen taking classes at the University Cen-t e r, close to her home. Johnson will gradu-ate in Ju n e, and a job in computer infor-mation systems with a local high tech com-pany awaits her.

“I might have been willing to drive toSam Houston,” Johnson said, “but I’m nots u r e. I have a vision problem that makesdriving at night difficult.This is just a wholelot easier.”

In addition to Sam Houston State, t h econsortium includes the University of Hou-s t o n , the University of Houston Downtown(which is a separate institution), P r a i r i eView A & M , Texas A&M and Te x a sSouthern University. Both Prairie View andTexas Southern are historically black insti-t u t i o n s. Enrollment at the University ofHouston Downtown campus is 31 percentH i s p a n i c.

About 1,800 students have enrolled at

University CenterSix universities share a common campus in the Houston suburbs

the University Center this spring.Most have jobs, so they take lateafternoon and evening classes. L a s tf a l l , more than 70 percent were 25 oro l d e r. About 65 percent are upper-division (junior and senior) under-g r a d u a t e s ; the rest are graduate stu-d e n t s. Many of the degree programsare in areas of business, c o m p u t e rscience and education.

“Many of our students are makingcareer shifts,” Dean Evans said. “ Weoffer the kinds of things people needto move forward in their lives.”

Fi f t y - t h r e e - y e a r-old Calvin Rob-ertson had “always worked with myb a c k ,” he said, doing landscaping jobs,until arm and neck injuries made thati m p o s s i b l e.Two years ago he enrolledat Sam Houston State as a businessmajor and has been taking most of hiscourse work at the University Center.

“At my age, I know my (job) choiceswill be limited,” Robertson said.“But mostbusinesses need a finance person and atleast I’m not going to be involved in physi-cal labor.”

The Woodlands center is one of fivenow operating in Te x a s. A sixth, in SanA n t o n i o, was approved recently by theTexas Higher Education CoordinatingB o a r d . Some have both public and privatep a r t n e r s, while others include only publicc a m p u s e s. The state calls them Multi-Institutional Teaching Centers (MITC’s,pronounced “ M i t z i ’s ” ) . Only the center atThe Woodlands is managed by a com-munity college district.

Like other Sun Belt states, Texas facesexplosive growth in higher education en-rollments over the next decade. Both thecoordinating board and the Texas legisla-ture are encouraging the formation ofthese centers as a less expensive optionthan building new stand-alone, f o u r- y e a rc a m p u s e s.

“I hope we see more of them,” said DonB r o w n , Texas commissioner of higher edu-c a t i o n .“ They look like a promising way toget the most out of the facilities and re-sources that we put into higher education.”

“In the 1970s and ’80s the board resistedoff-campus sites because we were con-cerned about their quality,” Brown added.“But now we’re so concerned about ourlow (college) participation rate and aboutthe geographical and racial gaps that exist,that we’re much more flexible in our atti-tude toward ventures such as these cen-t e r s.”

Many other states are encouraging thecreation of university centers, and otherkinds of partnerships, as they seek alterna-tives to building expensive traditional cam-p u s e s.

“ This idea is really taking off,” said Jo eC h a m p a g n e, dean of the university centerin Macomb County, M i c h i g a n , which wasone of the nation’s first.“ We ’re getting callsand visitors from all over the country.”

Largest of the centers is the Au r a r i a

Higher Education Center in downtownD e n v e r, where 33,000 students attendclasses on a 127-acre campus. P a r t i c i p a t i n gschools are the University of Colorado atD e n v e r, Metropolitan State College ofDenver and the Community College ofD e n v e r.

Mandated by the Colorado legislaturein the late 1960s, Auraria went throughyears of turf battles.“ There was all kinds ofpetty stuff,” said Jerome Wa r t g o w. Fr o m1980 to 1986, Wartgow was executivedirector of the agency that manages thee n t e r p r i s e. “Each institution wanted itsown name on buildings:Nobody would callit ‘Au r a r i a ’ , nobody would answer thep h o n e, ‘Au r a r i a .’ That kind of stuff.”

But Dean W, Wo l f, vice president fora d m i n i s t r a t i o n , says things are better now.“ The concept was so unique, it took anumber of years for everything to jell andfor people to understand what it takes tomake this work,” Wolf said. “Now theinstitutions have come to understand theirrole and now they work together prettyw e l l .”

Unlike Au r a r i a , many university centersare in geographically remote areas, f a rfrom any four- y e a rc a m p u s. For example, i nB e n d ,O r e g o n , just east ofthe Cascade Mountains,nine public and privateinstitutions have formedthe Central OregonUniversity Center, on thecampus of CentralOregon CommunityC o l l e g e

This semester, 5 5 0students are enrolled in26 bachelor’s and master’sdegree programs. Th ecenter has ten full-timefaculty members, some ofwhom live in Bend whileothers commute fromtheir home campuses.Although he considers

the center a success, Dick Markwood, w h ohas been director for six years, said “ l o c a lp o l i t i c s ”are troublesome.

“ The community is absolutely committed to having a free-standing, d e g r e e -granting institution,” Markwood said. “A slong as that’s out there, i t ’s going to be p r o b l e m . Nothing we do is ever quitenough and every mistake we make im a g n i f i e d .”

James Mingle, executive director of thState Higher Education Executive Offic e r s, said many university centers havencountered this problem. “ They don’satisfy over the long term,” he said. “ Th e r eare local pressures for a full-blown campuwith a football team and all that.”

This is not likely to happen at the university center north of Houston.

“ This sucker’s not wired to be a full university campus,” said Nellie Carr Th o r og o o d , vice chancellor for organizationadevelopment and institutional renewal fothe North Harris Montgomery Community College District and chief architect othe center plan. This was agreed to in “memo of understanding” signed by all thpartner schools before the center opened.

The Wo o d l a n d sU n iv e rsity Center is

one of five in the stateof Tex a s, with more

p l a n n e d .

The $12 million University Center in The Woodlands, Texas, has the latest in educationaltechnology for both campus classes and distance education.

ance and security, and that the six univer-sities would pay a share of the center’soperating budget (now $870,000 a year)based on the number of student credithours each generates. Since Sam HoustonState has about 70 percent of current en-r o l l m e n t , it pays by far the largest share ofthe budget.

“ Two key factors” have led to the cen-t e r ’s success to date, Dean Evans said.“One is that we offer full degree programs,not just courses.”A similar center in Dallasfaltered because it concentrated on indivi-dual courses, not degrees, according to of-ficials of the Texas Higher Education Coor-dinating Board.

The second reason for success, E v a n ss a i d , is that “we have tried to avoid du-plication of degree programs, and for themost part we’ve been successful.”

That has not always been easy. At first,“everybody wanted the MBA (Master’s ofBusiness A d m i n i s t r a t i o n ) , because thatwas a real ‘cash cow,’ and they all wantedthe bachelor’s degree in business and someof the education degrees,” Thorogood said.“ There was a good bit of back and forthbut I think everybody’s pretty happy now.”

“ What Nellie pulled off there, in gettinga working relationship with all those insti-t u t i o n s, laid the groundwork for all the[centers] that happened later,” said GlendaB a r r o n , assistant commissioner for com-munity and technical colleges at the statecoordinating board.

The partner institutions seem largelypleased with results to date.

“ I t ’s a way to provide greater highereducation opportunity—not having to drive30 miles to get to class,” said Max Castillo,president of the University of HoustonD o w n t o w n . “But it does create some chal-lenges for the home institution, e s p e c i a l l ymaking sure you have the faculty re-s o u r c e s ” to handle both on- and off-campusw o r k .

“ There have been fewer problems thanI would have anticipated,” said Don Coers,assistant vice president for academic affairsat Sam Houston State. “ We can do a lot ofgood things for students with thesecommunity college collaborations.”

“I think it’s working well,” said LoisP h i l l i p s, assistant vice president for ex-tended learning at the University of Hous-ton and that institution’s representative onthe University Center Council. “By havingeach school do something different, t h a ttakes the load off of any one institution.”

Phillips’ university now enrolls 3,000students in various off-campus programsand distance education classes. S h e, t o o,raised the issue of asking the faculty to dotoo much.

“Our biggest problem is stretching ourf a c u l t y,” Phillips said. “ We try to use regu-l a r, full-time faculty as much as possible, o radjuncts who have taught on campus re-c e n t l y … Finding enough people to do allthis can be a challenge.”

Somewhat surprisingly, the four- y e a runiversities do not seem to mind beingpartners in a venture that is run by a com-munity college district. It is helpful thatDean Evans has a university back-ground—she was associate dean of theCollege of Business at the University ofHouston Downtown before taking the

Page 9C R O SSTALK

Officials of the 22,000-student district,fifth largest in the state, decided to explorethe possibility of a university center, after a1995 survey found that 187,000 people inthe district’s service area had some collegeexperience but had not completed a bache-l o r ’s degree.

Thorogood and district Chancellor Jo h nE . Pickelman visited several locations anddecided they liked the Macomb County,M i c h i g a n , model the best. Th e r e, n i n epublic and private four-year universitiesare in a consortium that is managed by thelocal community college district.

George P. M i t c h e l l , the wealthy oil manwho developed The Wo o d l a n d s, had beenholding land open for a possible four- y e a rc a m p u s. But Mitchell was persuaded that apartnership of several universities mademore sense and he agreed to donate tenacres of land and to contribute $2 milliontoward construction. In 1995, district votersapproved a $78 million bond issue, i n-cluding $9.5 million to build and equip theUniversity Center. It opened in fall, 1 9 9 7with 686 students and has grown steadily.

The three-story, 7 8 , 0 0 0 - s q u a r e - f o o tbuilding has some of the latest technologya v a i l a b l e, including a dozen two-way voicevideo interactive classrooms and seminarr o o m s ; an 84-seat “ s m a r t ” lecture hall, w i t hd a t a , Internet and power at each seat; a n da 24-station computer classroom.

For several months in 1994, Nellie Th o-rogood met with representatives of Hous-ton-area colleges and universities, b o t hpublic and private, looking for partners forthe new center. “Everybody said it lookslike a great idea, if you can get it workedo u t ,” she said in an interview, “but I don’tthink any of them thought we could do it.”

But Thorogood was able to persuadethe four major public institutions in theHouston area—Texas A & M , Sam HoustonS t a t e, the University of Houston and theUniversity of Houston Downtown—tobecome partners in the center. Th e s eschools were quickly followed by PrairieView A&M and Texas Southern.

For some time, the discussions also in-cluded Rice University, the best-knownprivate institution in the Houston area, b u tin the end Rice dropped out. “ We workedand worked at that,” Gail Evans said, “ b u tthey couldn’t see how to get the bachelor’sdegree off campus…It was just not pos-sible to work it out within their culture.”

Slots also were held open for HoustonBaptist University and Our Lady of theLake University, in San A n t o n i o, but so farthey have not joined the partnership.

After long, hard negotiations, the com-munity college district and the six univer-sities agreed that the two-year districtwould manage the new facility, but thateach governing board would retain policy -making authority over its institution.

A steering committee—the UniversityCenter Council—was established, w i t hrepresentatives from each partner. E v e r yeffort is made to govern by consensus, b o t hThorogood and Evans said, but if agree-ment cannot be reached, the communitycollege district has the final say because itowns the building and the land.

It was agreed that the center would pro-vide central services such as registration, f i-nancial aid counseling, building mainten-

University Center job in1 9 9 7 .

“ There have been sometense moments,” said MollyWo o d s, vice president foracademic affairs and pro-vost at the University ofHouston Downtown. “ B u tGail Evans understandshow universities work, a n dshe is able to convey thatknowledge in the correctw a y.”

H o w e v e r, the sailing hasnot been entirely smoothduring the center’s firstthree years.

Evans and Th o r o g o o dwould like to increase thenumber of daytime undergraduate classes( “ We don’t want this to be thought of as anight school or a ‘weekend college,’ ”Thorogood said), and also would like tostrike a better balance among the partners.At present, Sam Houston State has 70percent of enrollment and everyone else isunder ten percent.

They have asked Texas A & M , w h i c hnow offers only a few master’s degreep r o g r a m s, to add some undergraduateclasses but have had little luck so far.

“ We have 35,000 undergraduates hereat College Station (the main Texas A & Mc a m p u s ) ,” said William Perry, the univer-s i t y ’s executive associate provost. “ O u rfaculty feel stretched already. Our student-faculty ratio is higher than we would like.So there is a real question how much ourfaculty can contribute off campus.”

Evans and Thorogood are especiallyconcerned about Texas Southern Univer-s i t y, which is generating less than fourpercent of the total student credit hours.But Evans pointed out that Texas Southernhas had administrative and financialp r o b l e m s, aggravated by the murder of theeducation school dean, so their limitedparticipation is not surprising.

Although space is at a premium in thelate afternoon and evening, some class-rooms are empty during the morning andearly afternoon.To fill them, the UniversityCenter has been quietly providingclassroom space for overcrowded Mont-gomery Community College next door.

“ This is being a good steward of thep u b l i c ’s money,” Evans said, “but weh a v e n ’t talked much about it because wespent a long time convincing people wewere not part of Montgomery CommunityC o l l e g e.”

Some students worry that they will beunable to get courses they need to com-

plete their degrees. “ The student concernsare valid,” Evans said, “but we’re workingwith the universities on this. I t ’s a slow edu-cational process but I think I can assurestudents that the courses they need will bet h e r e.”

It has not been possible to agree upon acommon academic calendar for all sixparticipating universities. And some stu-dents still encounter problems when theytry to transfer credits from one of the com-munity colleges to one of the universities.“Early on, we had a lot of that ‘my courseis better than your course’ kind of thing,but it’s better now,” Evans said.

The partners also have disagreed onw h e t h e r, and under what conditions, t oadmit new schools to the consortium. Th ecommunity college district would like toexpand membership as rapidly as possible,but the current partners are less eager.

“Our group wants to keep other part-ners out until we get our feet a little moreon the ground,” said Molly Wo o d s, p r o v o s tat the University of Houston Downtown.

Said Don Coers of Sam Houston State,“ We are interested in bringing in new part-n e r s, but we are concerned about schedu-ling problems. We don’t want to have tocompete for tight time slots.”

“ They would like to have more insti-tutions in the group, to share the cost,”Nellie Thorogood said, “but they have notdeveloped a solution to the ‘we got herefirst’ problem.”

S t i l l , the early success of the UniversityCenter has surprised many.

“I really think it’s working pretty well,”said Riley Ve n a b l e, an associate professorof education at Texas Southern University,who is teaching a graduate course in edu-cational counseling at the center this se-m e s t e r.“I was skeptical at first. I expected alot of turf battles, and there have beens o m e,but many fewer than I anticipated.”

“ I t ’s been very advantageous for us,”said Joahanne Th o m a s - S m i t h , vice presi-dent for academic affairs and provost atPrairie View A & M . “It gives us a new andexciting way to reach a population wewould not reach otherwise.”

“ I t ’s really a challenge and I think thejury is still out,” Molly Woods said.“But themain thing is that we have lots of peopleout there who otherwise couldn’t finishtheir degrees, so you’d have to say it’s asuccess so far.”◆

“This is all about access,” says Gail Evans, executivedirector and dean of the University Center.

Many other states aree n c o u r a ging the

creation of univ e rs i t yc e n t e rs, and other kindsof partners h i p s, as they

seek alternatives tobuilding ex p e n s iv e

traditional campuses.

educational policies will not provide sufficient support. D e c a d e s, even generations, of equaopportunity in elementary and secondary education will be required to produce equaeducational outcomes in postsecondary education. In the meantime, only affirmative action can ensure that those occupying the most elite positions in our society mirror thracial and cultural composition of the United States.

But affirmative action policies for the most selective institutions will not be enoughAffirmative outreach by non-elite colleges and universities also is necessary if there is to bdiversity in the vast array of American workplaces.

Beyond the most selective schools, the key to increasing minority enrollment iaffirmative development (improving minority achievement and attainment in elementarand secondary education) and affirmative outreach (doing a better job of getting qualifieminorities to apply and enroll in the first place and, once enrolled, to provide the necessarf i n a n c i a l ,a c a d e m i c, and social support to ensure graduation and access to graduate educ a t i o n ) .

The Economic Promise of Dive r s i t yDespite the current strength of the U. S. e c o n o m y, some 41 percent of A f r i c a n

Americans and 33 percent of Hispanics live in households with incomes below th“minimum but adequate” level set by the U. S. Department of Labor.

How can this be, in an economy with moregood jobs than it can fill? We are not becominga nation of hamburger flippers as many fear.H i g h - s k i l l e d , services-oriented positions, such aso f f i c e, teaching and health care jobs are thefastest-growing sectors in the economy. But theyrequire college degrees.

In 1995, more than 62 percent of both menand women in the economy’s most elite jobs(managerial and professional jobs paying menmore than $59,000 and women more than$34,000) had bachelor’s degrees, and another 23percent had associate degrees or some college.By contrast, few elite job holders (only 14 percent) had not gone beyond high schooM o r e o v e r, more than one-half of those holding good jobs (industrial supervising, crafts anclerical jobs paying men more than $35,800 and women more than $21,400 a year) had aleast some college.

But imagine if the African American and Hispanic communities had the same distribution of college education as the white community. We would fill more of those collegjobs that may otherwise go begging, go to underskilled American workers, or go to foreigw o r k e r s.

The difference in national wealth that would result from this infusion of human capitawould be startling. And higher incomes would substantially raise the standard of living ominority families and increase the quality of their lives in countless ways that cannot bm e a s u r e d .

The Value of Diversity in the Wo r k p l a c eStructural changes in the economy suggest that more U. S. workers will need to learn t

value diversity during their college years if they are to be successful on the job. Th egrowing need to interact successfully in diverse groups is deeply rooted in a complex weof profound occupational shifts, the movement toward team-based organizational formatnew competitive requirements, and technological changes at work.

American workers have largely replaced their hard hats with briefcases. To d a y ’s U. Se c o n o m y, once defined by industrial might, is now driven by high-skilled services. Wh i l eoffice jobs and jobs in education and health care are growing, factory jobs are decliningTo d a y, the U. S. economy is more a high-wage high-skilled services provider than a goodp r o d u c e r.

Diversity affects performance in this new economy in crucial ways. Because people odifferent backgrounds and cultures approach things differently, a diverse workforcincreases the probability of innovation. Diversity also forces team members to remaiflexible and open-minded.

Including diverse staff members in brainstorming sessions can send the conversation idirections it may never have taken before. “ The very nature of the discussion is differenwhen one of us is in the room,” said former Illinois Senator Carol Moseley-Braun, an A f r ican A m e r i c a n ,describing her experience in the predominantly white,male U. S. S e n a t e.

An extensive body of research by Charlan Nemeth testifies to the flexible capabilities odiverse work teams. N e m e t h ’s work finds that the mere presence of a minority viewpoineven when the minority view is proven suboptimal, stimulates creativity among othegroup members. Research also suggests that diverse groups make better decisions becausthey have a broader base of experience from which to draw.

The global economy is ubiquitous, and American exports of goods and services havtripled since 1986. But entering foreign marketplaces can be risky, especially if companiea r e n ’t familiar with a country’s culture, values or business practices. For this reason, h a v i n ga diverse workforce can help give U. S. companies a competitive edge in the globae c o n o m y.

Cause for Concern: Disturbing Trends and a Cloudy FutureAn economy that values diversity and increasingly draws its workers from

postsecondary schools puts stresses on education institutions. For the U. S. e d u c a t i o n

T h eO p p o rt u n i t yG a pCampus diversity and thenew economyBy A n t h o ny P. C a r n eva l e

IN THE T W E N T Y-FIRST CENTURY, electronic mail messages can flash from To k y oto New York in seconds, hundreds of millions of people around the world can watchthe same newscast, and political uncertainty in Russia can send markets tumbling from

Kuala Lumpur to Kansas City. D i s n e y ’s message—It’s a small world after all—was nevermore on target.

And the United States has never been more diverse. At a single public high school inA n n a n d a l e,Vi r g i n i a , for example, there are 2,200 students speaking 34 different languagesfrom 72 countries. Even the fictional “Betty Crocker” has been updated. The “new Betty”is dark-haired, dark-eyed and olive-skinned to reflect the composite American woman oft o d a y.

In response to the growing numbers of Hispanic, Asian and other minorities in A m e-r i c a , along with the growing numbers of children born to people in mixed-race marriages,This year’s census is allowing respondents to identify themselves as being a member of oneor more racial/ethnic groups.

The emergence of a truly global marketplace and the increasing diversity of the U. S.population are having a tremendous effect on the economy.

Growing diversity at home and abroad has affected hiring patterns. M a n y, if not most,U. S. companies quietly use affirmative action hiring policies—some because they recognizethat it makes them more effective, creative and flexible; some because they believe in it;some as a defense against possible lawsuits; and others because they have federal contractsand must reach certain hiring targets.

Whatever the reasons for seeking a diverse workforce, studies show that these policieshelp to improve companies’ hiring and internal evaluation policies. The result? The hiringof better candidates from all backgrounds—a far cry from the preferential treatment often

associated with affirmative action.Fundamental changes in technology and the

structure of the economy have increased both thevolume and the value of interaction amongdiverse workers on the job. As interaction amongdiverse workers and customers intensifies, t h efailure to value diversity risks conflict and or-ganizational failure. Employers and employeesneed to value diversity in the new economy not

only to avoid conflict and failure but also to ensure success as well.As A m e r i c a n s, we start out with some clear advantages and disadvantages. O u r

advantage is that we are the world’s most diverse student body and workforce. B u t , at thesame time, we must contend with the negative baggage of our historical bigotry and thetension that arises from our current racial and ethnic inequalities. The reality of A m e r i c a ndiversity presents us with a choice: We can ignore our differences and live with theeconomic and social costs that follow, or we can learn to value our diversity and turn it intoa true American advantage in the new economy.

One thing is sure: If we are going to have diverse workers, we will need diversecampuses first.A l r e a d y, almost 60 percent of American workers have at least some college,and that number will grow as on-the-job skill requirements increase. To m o r r o w ’s workerscome from today’s colleges, and the best way to ensure diversity in the workplace is toincrease diversity on the campus.

But the current diversity on U. S. campuses falls short of the diversity we need in ourw o r k p l a c e s. Minorities still are underrepresented in higher education. The share ofminorities among college students should at least equal their share of the 18- to 24-year- o l dcollege-age population. By that measure, there are currently 200,000 African A m e r i c a n sand 430,000 Hispanics missing on today’s college campuses.

As time passes, the opportunity gap in minority education is likely to widen because our

Page 10 C R O SSTALK

OTHER VOICES

Even with aff i r m a t iv ea c t i o n , n e i t h e r

African A m e r i c a n snor Hispanics ge ttheir fair share of

seats at the nation’smost selective sch o o l s

The best way toensure div e rsity inthe workplace is to

increase div e rsity onthe campus.

s y s t e m , the challenge will be to ensure that all students, majority or minority, have access tohigher education and have the opportunity to learn the skills they need to succeed.

This means both providing more access to college for minorities and placing more focuson critical thinking, r e a d i n g, w r i t i n g, public speaking and working as part of a diverse team.A n d , in fact, creating a diverse classroom helps develop these skills naturally.This is not tosay that math and science are no longer important, only that the so-called “liberal arts”skills that have been largely devalued on college campuses in the 1980s and 1990s also arei m p o r t a n t .

When looking at efforts to close the gap between the college enrollment of white andminority students, there is mixed news. The good news is that growing proportions ofAfrican Americans and Hispanics are attending colleges and universities. And the trendwill continue. The combination of rising educational performance and a surgingdemographic wave of minority youth will ensure more diverse campuses and, u l t i m a t e l y,more diverse workplaces.

The bad news is that these successes are found to be more apparent than real. U n l e s swe increase the proportions of minorities attending college—the so-called participationrates—the gap between the proportion of minority enrollees relative to the minority shareof 18- to 24-year-olds will not change.

In addition, these optimistic educational and demographic trends shouldn’t result inc o m p l a c e n cy. While minority students are joining the quest for a college degree inincreasing numbers, so are white students. If the recent upward ratcheting of educationalattainment in response to increasing skill requirements on the job continues, minorities willhave to keep running faster just to stay in place.

The race to college will continue. Th u s, to ensure they have an equal shot at thee c o n o m y ’s best jobs, and to ensure that employers can create diverse work teams,especially among their elite workers, minority students must go to college and graduate.But the social and economic disadvantages they must overcome—at every step along theway to a four-year degree—are greater than those faced by most white students.

In many cases, African American and Hispanic students are academically qualified togo to a four-year college, but don’t go. Or they settle on a two-year program instead. Wh i l ethere is nothing wrong with going to community colleges—they provide access to goodj o b s, and they are a low cost community-based “on ramp” to the higher education high-way—too many potential four-year graduates are lost at the end of two-year programs.Fi n a l l y, a fair number of minority students who d o enroll in four-year college programsnever graduate.

A f f i r m a t i ve A c t i o nC l e a r l y, there is no one way to reverse the reasons, both cultural and economic, t h a t

many minority students get left behind in their quest for a college degree and theopportunities it brings. But continuing affirmative action programs, especially at thec o u n t r y ’s most selective colleges and universities, is a necessary component of any strategy.Even with affirmative action, neither African Americans nor Hispanics get their fair shareof seats at the nation’s most selective schools.

African Americans and Hispanics represent 12 and 11 percent, r e s p e c t i v e l y, of then a t i o n ’s population, but each represents fewer than six percent of students at the nation’s120 most selective colleges and universities. By way of comparison, whites and A s i a n srepresent 73 and 3.5 percent, r e s p e c t i v e l y, of the nation’s population and have 77 and 11.5p e r c e n t ,r e s p e c t i v e l y, of the seats at the most selective schools.

Tr u e, affirmative action’s impact on the diversity of college enrollments is limited whenlooking only at the number of minority enrollments at the most selective colleges. But thefact is that a disproportionate number of A m e r i c a ’s corporate leaders, l a w y e r s, doctors andpolitical officials come from these schools.To ensure diversity among future leaders—vitalto the future of the country—there must be diversity on these most selective campuses.

But affirmative action at the nation’s mostselective schools will not be enough. If we don’textend affirmative action and outreach beyondthese schools, there will not be a sufficient numberof college-level minorities to create diversity,especially in the crucial managerial andprofessional jobs, in the vast majority of A m e r i c a nw o r k p l a c e s.U l t i m a t e l y, it is going to college—not just one ofthe most selective colleges—and graduating thatmatters most for most minorities. C o n s e q u e n t l y,affirmative recruiting of minorities for the fullrange of postsecondary institutions is critical.

If we were successful in giving minorities access to their share of seats in college, t h e r ealready would be another 185,000 minorities with bachelor’s degrees in A m e r i c a .A n d , in alabor market where projections suggest an ongoing increase in the demand for college-educated workers over the current supply, these new students and graduates would not betaking jobs away from other college-educated workers.

Recruiting Minorities and Low-Income StudentsThe current resistance to traditional forms of affirmative action suggests a need for

a l t e r n a t i v e s. The current dilemma is that the public supports diversity but is opposed toadmissions based solely on minority status. In general, available opinion data suggest that alarge share of Americans are more comfortable with preference when it is associated withincome class rather than race alone.

In response to these public attitudes, many colleges are attempting to identify “ s t r i-vers”—students who have higher grades and score higher on standardized tests than wouldbe expected based on their less advantaged individual, f a m i l y, school and academic charac-t e r i s t i c s. Strivers are young people who have overcome economic and educational disad-v a n t a g e s, and who arguably should receive preference in admission to the nation’s mostselective schools.

This strivers approach to admissions, if supported by further research, could engendergreater public support than traditional affirmative action because it rewards students whoexemplify the American dream-beating the odds through hard work and perseverance.

Both two- and four-year schools need to reach out for minority students. A f f i r m a t i v eoutreach policies also are needed to ensure that minorities who go to college actuallyg r a d u a t e. Among 25- to 29-year-olds who went to college, half of whites graduated, c o m-pared to fewer than a third of African Americans and Hispanics.

For all these students, across the broad range of American schools, we will need morepervasive and subtle forms of affirmative development and affirmative support beyondthose discussed in the current debate over “ p r e f e r e n c e s.”

Achieving economic equality among the nation’s diverse populations is not just a “ n i c e ”social or political goal. It is a necessity—for both social and economic reasons—that mustbe conveyed to elected leaders and the public.

To achieve workplace diversity, more must be done by education institutions at everylevel to ensure that qualified minority students are entering college. Wh a t ’s more, t h e s estudents must finish four-year college programs—including those offered by the country’smost elite schools—if they are to succeed.

At the beginning of the 21st century, we have a pretty good idea about the economythat lies across the threshold. Our diversity is a unique advantage. To maintain ourcompetitive edge we will need employees who are increasingly creative and agile. To meetthat need, we must have diverse workers with the education to match.◆

Anthony P. C a r n evale is vice president for public leadership, Educational Testing Servi c e.This article was adapted from a paper delivered at an American Council on Educationsymposium on diversity and affirmative action.

Page 11C R O SSTALK

A large share ofAmericans are more

comfortable withpreference when it is

associated withincome class rather

than race alone.

A NewA d m i s s i o n sG a m eClass rankings re p l a c ea ff i rmative actionBy Michael W. K i r s t

THE END OF A F F I R M ATIVE AC T I O N for competitive admission to universitieshas created a search for new admissions criteria that will enhance equity and access.

Many universities have included new concepts such as persistence, overcoming handi-c a p s, first in family to attend a university, and attending a high school that has sent fewpupils to any college or university. But the most visible solution has been to automaticallyaccept students ranked at the top of their class, regardless of the high schools they have at-tended or the courses they have taken.

Public universities in Texas now admit the top ten percent of each graduating class and,beginning next fall, Florida universities will accept the top 20 percent. The University ofCalifornia admits the top four percent to one of the eight general campuses in its systembut specifies the courses that must be taken.

The Pennsylvania state university system is considering a proposal to automaticallyadmit the top 15 percent from each public high school graduating class.

While the impact upon minority enrollment from these policies is unclear, they shouldhelp to increase both geographic representation and the numbers of students from highschools with historically low university enrollment rates.

Defining the top of the class appears to be straightforward, but it has proven to be morecomplex and elusive than originally thought. This new admissions game will producewinners and losers, as well as students, parents and school districts who learn how to playthe game better.What counts is not merely good grades, but better grades than one’s peers.

A survey of 2,200 high schools by Patricia Riordan, dean of admissions at GeorgeMason University, concluded that some schools give extra weight to certain courses butothers do not. The policies run the gamut, and inequities are created. For example, f o rdecades Illinois has been using high school class rank (HSCR) as one-half of an admissionsi n d e x , with ACT scores for the other half. But Illinois universities and the Illinois Board ofHigher Education have never specified how high schools should compute class rank.

C o n s e q u e n t l y, high schools use a variety of techniques and weighting systems to deter-mine HSCR. High schools include different courses in their calculations—some schools

continued next page

Page 12 C R O SSTALK

count college prep courses for the most part, while others include electives and vocationalc l a s s e s. Some types of courses are more heavily weighted but some schools computeHSCR in several ways and then report the ranking that provides local students with thebest chance of being admitted.

This system does not provide valid and reliable comparisons of HSCR for universitya d m i s s i o n . At the University of Illinois, for example, disputes about class rank have led tothe creation of a group of special review schools, mostly in suburban Chicago. If freshmangrades from these schools are high enough, their class rankings are adjusted upwardcompared to the rest of the state. Since most high schools use the same class rank systemfor many years, Illinois has worked out most of the problems with its criteria throughencouraging high schools to continue to use the same ranking system (whatever it may be)for many years. But the Illinois experiences demonstrate the complexity of the issue.

All public universities in Texas now accept the top ten percent from each of the state’shigh schools but there are no course requirements. Non-academic electives and vocationalcourses can be crucial factors in helping students reach the top ten percent more easily, b u tmore difficult courses might be more appropriate for admissions purposes.

It will be interesting to follow Texas university grades and graduation rates for studentswith different course preparation patterns. Texas officials need to monitor whether schooldistricts are adjusting class rank to give their students an advantage at selective institutionslike the Texas A&M flagship campus in College Station and the University of Texas atAu s t i n .

If universities do not think HSCR is valid and reliable, they may revert to placing moreemphasis on ACT and SAT scores. The top-ten-percent policy in Texas could produce

classes of freshmen who have taken anextremely wide range of courses, but a recentU. S. Department of Education study stressesthat specific course-taking patterns in highschool lead to higher college graduation rates.This study finds that taking specific courses,especially one math course beyond Algebra II, i scrucial to university graduation. The goal, a f t e ra l l , should be to graduate students, not simply toadmit them.

F l o r i d a ’s top-20-percent calculation is left toeach district or high school to determine, but allstudents in the top 20 percent must complete 19

college prep courses including three units of math (Algebra I or higher), three units ofscience (two lab), and two units of foreign language. Some Florida minority groups areconcerned that the language requirement will keep many minority students out of the top20 percent because community colleges do not emphasize language preparation.

The fact that districts use differing methods for calculating class rank will lead to signi-ficant differences in determining which students are considered to be part of the top 20p e r c e n t , especially when electives, honors and Advanced Placement courses are given extraw e i g h t .

State supporters of the top-20-percent policy contend more minorities who attendi n n e r-city or rural high schools with lower grade point averages now will be eligible foruniversity admission without needing to take the SAT. But some local educators predictnon-minority students from high-grade-point-average schools may transfer to these lowgrade point average high schools in order to be in the top 20 percent.

The University of California has chosen a different and better route than Florida orTe x a s. As in Florida, students who rank in the top four percent of their high school classwill be eligible for a place somewhere in the UC system but will not be guaranteedadmission to their first-choice campus.The university also has revised its policies governingadmissions—as opposed to eligibility—at the most over-subscribed UC campuses, to addhigh school class rank as a selection criterion. But this is only one of many criteria and doesnot guarantee automatic admission to those campuses.

The university is asking each high school to forward the transcripts of the top tenpercent of their graduating seniors based on grade point average, as defined at the school.University staff then will analyze the transcripts to determine the top four percent at eachs c h o o l , based on the students’ performance in specific academic courses.These include fouryears of English, three years of math, two years of history/social science, two years oflaboratory science, two years of foreign language and two years of college elective courses.Beginning in 2003, one year of visual or performing arts also will be required.

Since some students in the top four percent will be identified at the end of the juniory e a r, only 11 of the 15 courses will be required at that time.Top-ranked students must com-plete the remainder of the 15-course sequence during the senior year, and maintain an ap-propriate grade point average, in order to complete their eligibility for UC.This is expectedto result in more students passing their university courses and proceeding to graduation.

At first, the high school class rank approach to admissions looks simple and straight-f o r w a r d . But students, parents and schools will utilize any ambiguity to help them gainentrance to highly selective campuses. C o n s e q u e n t l y, high schools must be given specificguidance about how to compute class rank. Po l i cymakers need to establish their objectivesfor a high school class rank system, and to be sure that class rank provides both equalopportunity and intensive academic preparation. ◆

M i chael W. Kirst is a professor of education at Stanford Unive r s i t y.

from preceding page

While defining the topof the class appears tobe straightforward, i thas proven to be morec o m p l ex and elusiv e

than origi n a l l yt h o u g h t .

A Mandate for ChangeBusiness and universityleaders seek to workt o g e t h e rBy Milton Goldberg

IN RECENT YEARS a national debate has centered on improvements to K–12 educ a t i o n . In this new millennium, our treasured system of colleges and universities deserves similar attention.

The business community, in particular, has a special interest in the quality of highee d u c a t i o n . According to “Spanning the Chasm,” (a study conducted by the BusinessHigher Education Fo r u m , which is co-sponsored by the National Alliance of Business anthe American Council on Education) American college graduates are entering thworkplace ill-equipped to effectively contribute in a fast-paced world economy.

In fact, serious gaps now exist between the skills possessed by graduates and those required by today’s high-performance jobs. The majority of students are severely lacking iflexible skills and attributes such as leadership, t e a m w o r k , problem solving, time managem e n t ,a d a p t a b i l i t y, analytical thinking, global consciousness, and basic communicationincluding listening,s p e a k i n g, reading and writing.

This is forcing both businesses and educators to re-examine traditional methods olearning while seeking new methods of linking the dynamics of external growth anchange to the established structures of higher education.

The National Alliance of Business (NAB) is the preeminent business organizatioconcerned solely with the quality of education and training through a lifetime. In one oNA B ’s recent Work A m e r i c a publications we described what business and university leaders seek to accomplish together:• better equipping college and university students with the knowledge and skills the

need to succeed in the changing world of work;• strengthening the role of higher education in improving K–16 student achievement;• providing support at colleges and universities for basic and applied research that i

critical to the ground-breaking, fundamental advances that fuel long-term economig r o w t h ;a n d

• better preparing all students and workers to understand and work productively witpeople of diverse cultures, l a n g u a g e s, religions and ethnicities.Today at NAB we speak of a knowledge supply chain where companies get employee

with appropriate knowledge and skills, at the right time and in the right place—where anwhen they are needed for innovation, improved productivity and competitive advantage.

Leading companies are propelling the adoption of knowledge supply chains. Th e s echains will have a considerable influence on college and university education which seekto be responsive to the needs of students and the larger society.

A Nation at RiskBusiness concern about the quality of education is not new, of course.But it is fair to sa

that K–12 education has over the last two decades received far more direct attention thahas higher education, particularly following theissuance of the 1983 report, “A Nation at Risk:The Imperative for Educational Reform,”which had an explosive impact.

In 1984, President Reagan told former mem-bers of the National Commission on Excellencein Education assembled on the South Lawn ofthe White House, “ I t ’s not overstating things atall to say that your report changed our historyby changing the way we look at education andputting it back on the American agenda.” Th ereport helped create a huge and growing public mandate for change.

At the time, Reagan released another report from the Department of Education,“ Th eNation Responds,” documenting a “tidal wave of reform” in the schools. Among thelements of this reform movement which continue to this day are:• raising of high school graduation requirements;• the standards movement—creating assessments aligned with standards;• consideration of longer school days and a longer school year, and efforts to make bette

use of time in school;• improving teacher certification procedures, performance incentives and teacher status;• providing report cards to the public about education progress, school by school;a n d• increased public interest in quality education, as represented by PTA membership an

corporate involvement with schools.What generated all this fuss? A deceptively thin little “Open Letter to the A m e r i c a n

P e o p l e,” in which a panel of distinguished A m e r i c a n s, most of them professional educatorwarned in April 1983 that the “educational foundations of our society are presently beineroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and

American collegegraduates are entering

the workplace ill-equipped to eff e c t iv e l y

c o n t r i bute in a fa s t -paced world economy.

Page 13C R O SSTALK

p e o p l e,” sparked a national debate on education—and on what we need to do about it—which has been sustained to this day.

This debate was quite consciously sought by members of the Commission under theleadership of David Pierpont Gardner, then president of the University of Utah and laterpresident of the University of California. It was Mr. G a r d n e r ’s idea that the report be a“clarion call” to the American public, to remind the nation of the importance of educationas the foundation of leadership in change and technical invention.

Essential MessagesThe Commission intended that three essential messages be heard by the A m e r i c a n

p e o p l e.Fi r s t , that our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, i n d u s t r y, science and

technological innovation was being overtaken by competitors throughout the world.Although the Commission conceded that education was only one of many causes anddimensions of the problem, they may have been the first national body to insist that inat-tention to the schools puts the very well-being of the nation at risk.

The second essential message was that medi-o c r i t y, not excellence, had become the norm inAmerican education. Although the Commissioncited “ h e r o i c ” examples of dedicated individualsexcelling throughout American education, t h e yargued that “a rising tide of mediocrity” t h r e a t-ened to overwhelm the educational foundationsof American society.

The third essential message was simple: Wed o n ’t have to put up with it; we can, and must,do better. In a report section entitled “A m e r i c aCan Do It,” the Commission cited the remarkable success of the American educationalsystem in responding to past challenges as evidence of its optimism that the currentchallenges could be met.

Higher education played a significant but somewhat overlooked role in shaping theCommission report. In the end,h o w e v e r, the Commission chose to focus its report on K–12e d u c a t i o n . The business community which has played a central role in furthering K–12reforms now leads in emphasizing the links between these reforms and the standards,quality and efficiency of post-secondary education.

The pressures and opportunities of global commerce and new technologies are creatingnew definitions of change cycles in business. B u t ,i t ’s not just change that characterizesbusiness today. I t ’s the rate of change. A key response to this acceleration is an adaptable,skilled and knowledge-rich workforce. The people who work in our businesses are key toAmerican economic progress which in turn is vital to the well-being of these individualsand their families.

B u t , contrary to some popular opinion, it is not just the need for better educatedworkers that causes business to care about improving American education at all levels.Business recognizes that a solid well-rounded education is the thread that knits theintellectual and moral quilt of our nation. This has been so throughout our history. The illeducated and ill rewarded will not be intelligent consumers and surely will not create theleadership essential to all parts of our social, civic and economic life.◆

Milton Goldberg is exe c u t ive vice president of the National Alliance of Business, and formere xe c u t ive director of the National Commission on Excellence in Education.

abbreviated forms.Whatever we call them, there is no doubt that they are plentiful. The vast and growing

popularity of acronyms is considered by many linguists to be the most interesting andwidespread development in modern language usage. A basic search for acronyms on theInternet reveals thousands of sites, many of which contain thousands—even hundreds ofthousands—of listings.

Some of the sites are specific to the government, higher education, various industries orscientific disciplines, and are essential glossaries for people who work, or conduct research,in those fields. At one site specializing in things military, for instance, acronyms are divideda l p h a b e t i c a l l y. There are nearly 400 pages, defining more than 3,500 acronyms—and that’sjust the ones beginning with the letter A .

The sheer volume of acronyms in use today is astounding.And while much of it is seriousb u s i n e s s, some of it can be quite entertaining.

In many cases, acronyms for organizations or causes clearly were conceived first, and aphrase was crafted after the fact to fit those letters. MADD (Mothers Against DrunkDriving) is a good example, as is its reactionary counterpart, DAMM (Drunks Against MadM o t h e r s ) . Others include: PUSH (People United to Save Humanity); TEAM (To g e t h e rEveryone Achieves More); SCRAP (Scroungers Center for Reusable Art Parts); S TA RT(Strategic Arms Reduction Tr e a t y ) ; FAIR (Fairness and A c c u r a cy In Reporting); DA R E(Drug Awareness Resistance Education); and CARE (Committee on American Relief inE u r o p e ) .

One of the funniest is NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric A d m i n i s t r a t i o n ) , agovernment agency that issues warnings about impending weather disturbances, i n c l u d i n g,no doubt, notifying us in advance of any catastrophic floods.

Some acronyms of this type are so strained in their origins as to be ridiculous. Fo ri n s t a n c e, a group that advocates the liberalization of laws against prostitution is calledC OYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics), and an anti-drug program called CRAC K(Children Require a Caring Kommunity) is willing to spell “ c o m m u n i t y ” with a K to fulfillits important acronymic mission. One government program to combat the “Y2K problem”was named FRAMEWORK (Formal Risk A s s e s s m e n t , Millennium Engineers, Wo r k -around Options,Replacement policy, Keep going).

The higher education community seems to have a special affinity for acronyms, p e r h a p ssurpassed only by the government.And people in the education field are especially adept atcoming up with clever titles:

HOPE (Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally); ABLE (Adult Basic LearningE d u c a t i o n ) ; HEAL (Health Education and Adult Literacy ) ; STEP (Summer Training andEducation Program); WISE (Washington Internships for Students of Engineering); a n dFIRST (Fund for the Improvement and Reform of Schools and Te a c h i n g ) .

The American College of Healthcare Executives has a particularly ironic acronym:AC H E . One can’t help but wonder what they were thinking when they chose that name. O nthe other hand, A A ACE (American Association for Adult and Continuing Education)r e v e a l s, if nothing else, a desire to be listed first in the phone book.

One higher education program calledDTEFLA (Diploma in the Teaching ofEnglish as a Foreign Language to A d u l t s )changed its name to the catchier—thoughgrammatically incorrect—DELTA (Diplomain English Language Teaching for A d u l t s ) .Nice dangling participle. Maybe some ofthese ESL teachers should take an Englishc l a s s.

Acronyms that spell common names arevery popular in higher education: E R I C(Educational Resources Information Center); P L ATO (Programmed Logic/Learning forAutomated Teaching Operations); ANETTE (Academic Network for Technology Tr a n s f e rin Europe); CARL (California Academic and Research Librarians); ABE (Adult BasicE d u c a t i o n ) ; JANET (Joint Academic NETw o r k ) ;S TAN (Science Teachers’ Association ofN i g e r i a ) ; even JESUS (Job Entry System of the University of Saskatchewan).

GALILEO (GeorgiA LIbrary LEarning Online) is a bit of a reach, but deserves anhonorable mention for creativity.

While so much effort is exerted in twisting the language to form these words and names,some acronyms end up being unintentionally funny, or even problematic. One goodexample is the Pan-European Network Information Service—PENIS, for short. N o ts u r p r i s i n g l y, when the founders of the organization learned of their unfortunate error, t h e yquickly changed their name to Trans-European Network Information Service. T E N I S, a n y-o n e ?

I n t e r e s t i n g l y, the common usage of acronyms is almost exclusively a phenomenon of the20th century. But there are earlier examples. Ancient monuments reveal that peopleabbreviated words from the beginning of alphabetic writing, and there are a number of well-known acronyms,such as COD, that date back to the 19th century.

Some linguists argue that the earliest known acronym comes from the ancient Hebrews c r i p t u r e s, in which the mysterious “ u n s p e a k a b l e ”name of God is represented by a series offour characters (YHWH or JHVH).The characters originally were intended to be more ofa place-holder than a pronounceable word, but some scholars who were not familiar withJewish theology mistook those four letters to be the actual name of God—hence the trans-literations Yahweh and Je h o v a h .

K–12 education hasover the last two

decades received fa rmore direct attention

than has highere d u c a t i o n .

A A R G GA c ronyms Are RapidlyGaining Gro u n dBy Todd Sallo

DENNIS THE MENACE cups his hand to thetelephone and yells to his father in the nextr o o m ,“ I t ’s some guy using letters, D a d . Wh a t

does IRS spell?” We l l , some of us might say it spellst r o u b l e. But the point is that our lives today are literallyawash in “ l e t t e r s ” — a b b r e v i a t i o n s, coded words and phrases, a sort of alphabet soup thatrequires a certain amount of translation even for native speakers.

“ I R S ” has a lot of company. F B I ,P TA ,S U V, C P R ,C D - RO M ,M R I ,N F L , NA AC P,N CA A , NATO, NA S A , NA F TA , NA S DAQ—the list is almost literally endless.

Although abbreviations such as these—formed by combining the initial letters of a seriesof words—are commonly called acronyms, linguists and language purists insist there is a finedistinction to be made. Te c h n i c a l l y, only those abbreviations that are pronounceable aswords are considered to be acronyms. S o, for example, AIDS is an acronym, while HIV istermed an initialism. Some choose to call them all abbreviations,and leave it at that.

B u t , since “ a c r o n y m ” comes from the Greek words a k r o s (tip) and o n y m ( n a m e ) ,i t sdefinition seems broad enough, for the purposes of this article, to include all such continued next page

The higher educationcommunity seems to

h ave a special aff i n i t yfor acronyms, p e r h a p ss u rpassed only by the

go v e r n m e n t .

of her two-year trial period, after whichaccording to past routine, post-docs areither hired permanently or asked tl e a v e.

She has been recommended for a permanent job, but even American-born scientists like Espy now face indefinite delaybefore being hired, because of what heb o s s, biophysicist Robert Krauss, called “ p u n i t i v e ” slowdown in congressiona

funding for the labs. Others here attributthe problem to cumbersome new hirinrequirements causing indefinite delaysincluding clearance from the CIA and FBand the personal signature of Departmenof Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.

Reflecting the sentiments of otheyoung post-docs here, E s p y, who earneher Ph.D. in nuclear physics from the University of Minnesota in 1996, finds thuncertainty “ d i s h e a r t e n i n g, because I’m il i m b o. People really work hard here anare proud of what they do, yet they’r ediscouraged by outside perceptions.”

Last December, the time of year whethe lab hires the most accomplished postdocs by offering special financial inducem e n t s, applications plummeted, m o s t l ybecause of a large drop in those who comfrom “ s e n s i t i v e ” c o u n t r i e s, according t

Browne recently told employees, citing ajump in resignations and a simultaneousdrop in recruiting.

“ This is a legacy we will live with for along time,” said Basil Swanson, a chemistand a Los Alamos “ f e l l o w,” a title reservedfor outstanding scientists here. S w a n s o n ’sgroup recently discovered far cheaperways of detecting cholera and otherdeadly diseases in water and food. Now hefaces reluctance on the part of friends andcolleagues at UC campuses to advise theirgraduates to work at Los A l a m o s.Swanson may lose two of his bestr e s e a r c h e r s, both young Chinese A m e r i-c a n s.“ Th e r e ’s a big drop in inquiries and atremendous fall off in foreign graduate

Page 14 C R O SSTALK

LOS ALAMOScontinued from page 1

s t u d e n t s,” he said.Newly-imposed visa delays hindered

Paul C. Wh i t e ’s eight-year responsibilityfor directing his group’s interchange withRussian scientists, both to advise themhow to secure their nuclear weaponsstockpile against theft and how to safelydispose of plutonium wastes. Now he findsit harder to gain approval for Russian visi-tors to his lab, even though it does no clas-sified research. One recent meeting herewith Russian scientists had to be post-p o n e d , and a scheduled visit from anotherRussian scientist had to be canceled whenhe was refused a visa.

“ Those interactions are vital,” Wh i t es a i d .“ We can do some collaboration bymail and the phone, but to work together,to set up experiments, you can’t do thatwithout sitting side by side.”

Weapons development and other secret military and intelligence work takes placein heavily guarded buildings at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Wh i t e, a 25-year veteran at Los A l a m o s,joined other interviewed scientists instrongly rejecting charges about rampantsecurity violations and espionage. “I couldhave walked out from sessions and donemore harm than Wen Ho Lee,” said Wh i t e,who formerly managed nuclear designw o r k . “No guard can tell, nor can anysecurity measure, if I’m of ill will andwilling to spill what’s in my head. I t ’s ul-timately a matter of trust.

“If you look at what Congress is saying,t h e r e ’s one side says we ought to be tough,because we won the Cold Wa r,” Wh i t es a i d .“ We should restrict travel and exportc o n t r o l s. But others say we need collabo-ration as much as possible. Instead of de-b a t e, we get conflicting directions. We ’r ecaught in the middle.”

Joyce Guzik, deputy leader of a wea-pons design unit, said her staff also hasbeen distracted by “repeated audits,” w h i l ehaving to cope with voluminous new andconfusing sets of security rules. At onep o i n t , a number of staff members warnedher they would leave if sweeping lie detec-tor tests were imposed. Subsequently thenumber of such tests was reduced andagents promised to limit questions to a fewgeneral ones about spying. Even so, G u z i ksaid that anxiety over possible new secu-rity restrictions has continued to interferewith work.

M o r e o v e r, in the past year, Guzik said,an indefinite hiring freeze has been im-p o s e d , just when an aging group needs toadd freshly recruited “ p o s t - d o c s ” — y o u n g-er scientists with recently earned doctor-a t e s. Other scientists had similar concerns.

Michelle Espy, a young post-doc whoworks on brain imaging, cardiac and can-cer research, said that a Russian-borncolleague told her “now is the not the timeto be a foreigner.” Espy is nearing the end

A barrage of espionagech a r ges has dampenedmorale and production

under Los Alamos’ f i rst and only manage r,

the Univ e rsity ofC a l i f o r n i a .

Another very old acronym that still is in common usage is A D, often printed in smallcapital letters, much like A M and P M (which stand for ante meridiem, before midday, and p o s tm e r i d i e m, after midday, by the way). AD is derived from Anno Domini (year of our lord),not from “After Death.” But AD isn’t as old as it sounds. It is clear that the ancient Romansdid not use it,and the Oxford English Dictionary’s earliest citing is from 1579.

The earliest recognized American acronym is “ O K .” It first showed up in print in theBoston Morning Post on March 23, 1 8 3 9 ,w h e r eit appeared as “ O.K.—All Correct.” In thecontext of the times, deliberate misspellings wereconsidered very funny, and were a common partof humorous writing. S o, while other theoriesa b o u n d , it generally is assumed that OKoriginated as an abbreviation for the intention-ally misspelled “Oll Ko r r e c t .”

Part of the reason why acronyms were rela-tively rare prior to the 20th century is that peoplehave to be literate to understand and use them.The growth in literacy and the proliferationof the printed word in the 19th century created a much more fertile environment for allsorts of abbreviations.

S t i l l , it was not until the World Wars and the explosion of government programs in the1930s that the American penchant for acronyms truly took off.A large number of acronymsquickly became well known.

A given acronym becomes a part of the language through repetition. S o m e, like CIA(Central Intelligence A g e n cy ) , clearly reveal their alphabetic origin, and most people knowwhat the letters stand for. S o m e, like T N T, become so familiar as acronyms that their originis all but forgotten. Everyone knows what TNT does, but few are aware that it stands forTriNitro To l u e n e. (Some might invoke Turner Network Te l e v i s i o n , a more recent expan-s i o n . )

Fi n a l l y, in some cases an acronym is so firmly ingrained in the popular culture that itliterally becomes a word. Editors stop capitalizing its letters, in resignation to popular trend,

and people forget that it ever was an acronym in the first place.Words like laser, r a d a r, s c u b aand snafu are good examples: (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of RadiationRadio Detection And Ranging; Self-Contained Underwater Breathing A p p a r a t u s ;a n dSituation Normal All “ Fo u l e d ”U p, r e s p e c t i v e l y ) .

To d a y ’s stock market offers a perfect example of how this works. NA S DAQ (NationaAssociation of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) has become a common word, a n dmany publications have begun printing it simply as Nasdaq.A few in the media, who pridthemselves on being “ h i p,” have started referring to it as “the Nazz.”

If the printing press started the acronym ball rolling, the personal computer has turned iinto a runaway freight train. The rise of typography has led, u n d e r s t a n d a b l y, to a desire foa b b r e v i a t i o n .And as the keyboard becomes an increasingly popular medium for communic a t i o n , growing numbers of people will embrace and use acronyms, both for conveniencand for entertainment.

IRC (Internet Related Communication) is all the rage today. Entire Web sites are devoted to glossaries of “chat acronyms,” s y m b o l s, code words and abbreviated phrases oevery conceivable variety. It actually has become something of a game. One site even rankthe acronyms according to such barometers as “IRC usefulness, geek points, wittiness anu n p r o n o u n c e a b i l i t y.”

Familiar expressions such as FYI (for your information) and ASAP (as soon as possible)have been joined by the likes of: HAND (have a nice day); TTFN (ta-ta for now); I M H O(in my humble opinion); W YSIWYG (what you see is what you get);TWIMC (to whom imay concern); and Y G I AGAM (your guess is as good as mine).

Particularly rewarding are PCMCIA (people can’t memorize computer industry acronyms) and YA BA (yet another bloody acronym).

If this trend continues, the time may come when all our communication is in abbreviatef o r m . Perhaps our computers will automatically search huge databases of such expressionand translate for us, saving humanity from at least some of the tyranny of the keyboardThen again, perhaps the keyboard, and CTS (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome), will becomobsolete first.Where is all this leading? Y G I AG A M .

We l l ,T T F N. ◆

Todd Sallo is an editor and production manager for National CrossTa l k .

A A R G Gfrom preceding page

The common usage ofacronyms is almost

ex c l u s ively aphenomenon of the

20th century.

cause of politics. “If he is released, anumber of critics will attack the govern-m e n t , especially in a presidential year. I t ’sa political issue.” Ti e n , the first ChineseAmerican to head a leading A m e r i c a nresearch university, a n d , like Lee, a mech-anical engineer who grew up in Ta i w a nand became an American citizen, s a i dword about Lee’s treatment haspersuaded a number of young A s i a nAmericans to abandon studies in science

and engineering. He contrasted Lee’streatment to that of former CIA directorJohn M. D e u t c h .

D e u t c h , now a member of the MITf a c u l t y, has admitted violating security bydrafting highly classified documents oninsecure computers at his home whiledirector in 1995 and 1996. A subsequentCIA investigation recommended a repri-m a n d .

The University ConnectionForeign scientists have been a crucial

part of research here ever since World Wa rI I , when refugees from six Europeannations on the faculty at UC Berkeley andother American campuses came to LosAlamos to help design and develop thefirst atom bomb, under the direction ofUC Berkeley physicist Robert Oppenhei-m e r.

Despite occasional faculty protests, t h eUC Board of Regents periodically hasapproved new contracts to manage LosAlamos and, since 1972, L i v e r m o r e.“ We ’re very upbeat about what’s beena c c o m p l i s h e d , and it’s my understandingthe board very much supports renewingthe contract,” when it comes up forrenewal in 2002, said Velma Montoya, v i c echair of the regents’ committee whichoversees university ties to the labs.

U C ’s $3 billion annual budget from theDepartment of Energy pays for 20,000 labemployees and their equipment. R u l o nL i n f o r d , a physicist who oversees labresearch for the UC president’s office, s a i dthat “no university has as wide a range oftechnical skill anywhere in the world.”

Los Alamos’ Paul White says he hasbenefited frequently from consulting withUC faculty. E a r l i e r, when White managednuclear designs programs, scientists fromthe campuses helped solve problems.According to Wh i t e, there is “good inter-action with UC political scientists whoa r e n ’t shy about giving their opinions,” a n dvaluable aid from specialists about how to

Page 15C R O SSTALK

lives and thea d m i n i s t r a t i o n ’s,” a c-cording to PeterB o n d , f o r m e rBrookhaven direc-t o r. Even though 95percent of the lab’swork is unclassified,Bond said newsecurity restrictionshad caused “ c h a o s.”

At Argonne Na-tional Laboratory,southwest of Chi-c a g o, managed bythe University ofChicago since short-ly after World Wa rI I , interim directorYoon I. Chang saidhe is concernedabout racial pro-filing throughoutthe DOE lab sys-t e m , e s p e c i a l l y

among Asian American employees. C h a n galso is worried about delays in arrangingvisits from scientists from countries on therestricted access list, even though 98percent of the research at Argonne isu n c l a s s i f i e d .

The government’s increased restric-tions on admitting Chinese, Indian andPakistani Ph.D.s or, more often, a d v a n c e dstudents who want to earn their doctoratesin the United States, come at a time when“growing numbers of foreign talent arechanging the face of American science,”according to a recent national survey byScience Magazine.“Individuals making ex-ceptional contributions to science andengineering in the United States are dis-proportionately drawn from the foreignb o r n ,” the survey found.

By 1995, nearly half of those earningdoctorates in science and engineering atAmerican universities had been borna b r o a d .Two thirds of these had temporaryv i s a s, the largest proportion from China,Ta i w a n , India and South Ko r e a .

But that increasingly vital addition ofimported talent has been slowed abruptlyby the fallout from Los A l a m o s, a c c o r d i n gto Marvin Miller, senior research scientistat the Massachusetts Institute of Te c h-n o l o g y ’s security studies program. “ Wehave a system to keep people out, e v e nthough it’s not engraved in stone,” he said.A large number of students at MIT usedto come from mainland China, M i l l e rn o t e d . “After the furor (about Los A l a-m o s ) , the U. S. government started to ha-rass students here in terms of visas andr e t u r n i n g. Somebody from Pakistan want-ing to study nuclear engineering at MITprobably would be denied a visa.

“ There is a risk; you can’t read theirm i n d s,” said Miller, a physicist who hasbeen working on arms control issues since1 9 7 7 . But he added, “My bottom line isthat we have a policy of open doors. Th a t ’sto our benefit.”

Wen Ho LeeThe central issue that sparked claims of

security breakdowns and espionageinvolved the W- 8 8 , a nuclear bomb the sizeof a football, developed in 1972. C h i n a

exploded a similar test bomb in 1992.In the winter of 1998–99, during im-

peachment proceedings in Congressagainst President Clinton, a House over-sight committee headed by ChristopherC o x , a Republican representative fromOrange County, C a l i f o r n i a , hurriedly puttogether a confidential report, leaked tothe press, which concluded that it wouldhave been “virtually impossible” for Chinato have developed the bomb withoutstealing nuclear secrets from the UnitedS t a t e s.

The probe focused increasingly on We nHo Lee, who worked on top-secretprojects here, was familiar with the W- 8 8and had traveled to China in 1986 and1 9 8 8 . Lee was fired a year ago, after it waslearned he had transferred large amountsof secret data about designing and testingnuclear weapons to his own unsecured of-fice computer, and later to portable tapes,some of which are missing.

Last December, the FBI arrested himon 59 counts of breaking security. A l-though he was not accused of espionage,Lee was ordered held without bail in soli-tary confinement 23 hours a day-with onehour a week allowed for visits. His trialw o n ’t begin until some time after October.

“ This is really awful, that Lee’s heldwithout bail,” said Herbert Yo r k , the firstdirector of the Livermore lab and laterchancellor of the UC San Diego campus.

“ There is reason for suspicion of es-p i o n a g e, and I have no idea what it allm e a n s, but it has a great deal to do withthe presidential election. I t ’s become acause celebre because of frustration inC o n g r e s s,” said Yo r k , a physicist andmember of UC President Richard C. A t-k i n s o n ’s council which is responsible foroversight at Los A l a m o s, Livermore andthe Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Th eLawrence lab also is funded by the De-partment of Energy but does no classifiedr e s e a r c h .

Wolfgang K.H. P a n o f s k y, former di-rector of the Stanford Linear A c c e l e r a t o rC e n t e r, and Michael S. M a y, a formerLivermore director, wrote a joint rebuttalto the Cox report, contending that itwrongly alleged that “essentially all Chi-nese visitors to the United States arepotential spies, casting a cloud of suspicionover both foreign and Asian born U. S. s t a f fmembers of U. S. c o m p a n i e s.”

James S. L a n g e r, president of the A m e-rican Physical Society, representing 40,000American physicists, wrote A t t o r n e yGeneral Janet Reno last February thatL e e ’s treatment “has caused great con-s t e r n a t i o n , especially among the largenumber of scientists in the United Stateswho have come here from abroad.”

L a n g e r, a physics professor at UC San-ta Barbara, said in an interview that thematter came home to him after one of hisbest students, a Chinese American whohad been hired at Los A l a m o s, “ s h o w e dup in my office and told me that hell wasbreaking loose and that he couldn’t workthere anymore. There was nothing I coulddo to help him out. I don’t know where heis now.”

Former UC Berkeley ChancellorChang-Lin Tien said in an interview thathe believed Lee is held without bail be-

Former UC BerkeleyChancellor Chang-LinTien said word about

Wen Ho Lee’s treatmenthas persuaded a

number of young A s i a nAmericans to abandonstudies in science and

e n gi n e e r i n g.

continued next page

Allen Hartford, J r. , director of science andtechnical programs.

Last year, the new security demandsforced a noted Ph.D. program in appliedp h y s i c s, a cooperative effort of the Liver-more lab and the University ofC a l i f o r n i a ’s Davis campus, to reject allforeign student applicants.

“ They are driving us away, even thoughwe don’t want to leave,” department chair-man Richard R. Freeman said in an inter-v i e w. “ The center mass is moving toD a v i s.” Fr e e m a n ’s department was foun-ded by famed physicist Edward Teller in1962 to help provide first-rate academicgraduate training for future employees atL i v e r m o r e.

Students and faculty use facilities out-side Livermore’s classified research areasand share equipment Freeman says nocampus could afford. They also work andconsult with a wide range of specialists.Since its founding, the department hasgraduated 250 Ph.D. s, most of whomeventually went to work at the Livermorel a b.

Freeman said he rejected requests fromsecurity people last year to provide per-sonal information about graduate studentsfrom abroad. “I said I’d lose my job if Isupplied that,” said Fr e e m a n , UC Davis’first Edward Teller Professor of A p p l i e dS c i e n c e.

The 92-year-old Te l l e r, one of the im-migrant nuclear scientists who helpeddevelop the atom bomb, is now a fellow atS t a n f o r d ’s Hoover Institution. He wroterecently that “the right prescription forsafety is not reaction to dangers that area r i s i n g, but rather action leading to moreknowledge and, one hopes, toward posi-tive interaction between nations.”

The heightened security and visacontrols also have had an impact at someof the other 12 DOE-sponsored nationall a b o r a t o r i e s. Eight of them are managedor co-managed by universities.

At Brookhaven National Laboratoryon Long Island, New Yo r k , managed bythe State University of New Yo r k ’s nearbyStony Brook campus, “foreign nationalswho work here certainly view themselvesas targeted, and that complicates their

Los Alamos chemist Basil Swanson believes onerous newsecurity requirements have led to “a tremendous fall-off inforeign graduate students.”

dispose of plutonium.“ We are driven by an academic, i n q u i-

sitive approach, to find out what’s right orw r o n g,” said Klaus Lackner, a physicistand acting associate director for strategicresearch at Los A l a m o s. “ This differsdramatically from a corporation which hasa product it wants to sell. The openness iscritical to me.”

“ We ’ve had a very open, liberal work-place and, as a result, other countries are

falling farther and farther behind,” s a i dMichael May, former Livermore lab di-rector and now a physicist at StanfordU n i v e r s i t y. “ The key to success is movingahead and not standing still. These labshave been at the forefront of technicaldevelopment in materials research, h i g hpowered lasers, and large projects onc o m p u t e r s, such as climate research. Th e yare part and parcel of A m e r i c a ’s technicalp r e e m i n e n c e.”

Sidney Drell, former head of the Stan-ford Linear Accelerator Center, w h ohelped write a White House advisorypanel report that was highly critical ofDOE security last Ju n e, said UC man-agement has enabled the labs to recruittop-flight scientists and to maintain in-dependence and high standards. “ P a r t i-cularly now, when we’re trying to work tomaintain a stockpile without undergroundt e s t s, i t ’s important for the labs to wantpeople willing to do noble service for theirc o u n t r y,” he said.

But members of Congress have ques-tioned whether a university should man-age an operation vital to the nation’s mili-tary security. C a l i f o r n i a ’s senior senator,

Dianne Fe i n s t e i n , charged dur-ing a closed Senate Ju d i c i a r yCommittee hearing last yearthat free exchange of in-f o r m a t i o n , promoted by Uni-versity of California leaders,could be damaging to nationals e c u r i t y. Her remarks werereleased recently by Repub-lican members of the com-m i t t e e.

Feinstein said at the hearingthat she had been “ a p p a l l e d ”b yUC officials’ arguments that anopen academic setting wasrequired to attract able em-p l o y e e s. “I have become verymuch of the view that if youhave this kind of academic cul-ture and academic discipline,that it really does a great dis-service to our nuclear secrets.”

The senator did not respondto requests for an interview butstaff members in Wa s h i n g t o nsaid she remains undecidedhow she will use her influentialvote on contract renewal.

“ The (university’s) relation-ship began more than 50 yearsa g o, and the reasons for thatmay have faded over time,”said Harvey Sapolsky, a po-litical science professor anddirector of security studies atM I T. “ There seems to me noreason why the governmentneeds to maintain such bigfacilities beyond work on theb o m b. Th e y ’ve drifted away from theirm i s s i o n s, because they are basically done.You can get others to come. Those at theforefront of physics don’t spend their timeon such issues.”

S a p o l s k y, a member of a DOE panelthat studied the university ties seven yearsa g o, is convinced that the labs should beplaced under the department of Defense,“which would shrink them.”

Asked to respond to Sapolsky’s views,U C ’s Rulon Linford said, “ Those who saywe don’t need to know a lot more aboutnuclear weapons don’t understand about

Page 16 C R O SSTALK

problems of aging. We used to be able toreplace old weapons, but now we have tohave them survive far longer than before.Major problems lie ahead because ofaging and because the people who wereexperienced in doing underground testsare retiring. We have a short time framefor the challenge ahead.”

Besides the need to replace an agings t a f f, “cutting edge research” will be re-quired more than ever amid growingthreats that include biological warfare andglobal terrorism, said Bob Van Ness, U n i-versity of California assistant vice presi-dent for lab administration.

“ The overwhelming sentiment (amongscientists) is for maintaining university-labties and for maintaining the visitingscientist program,” said Irving Lerch,chairman of the American Association forthe Advancement of Science committeeon scientific freedom and responsibility.“Some congressmen have indeed re-commended putting the weapons labsunder Department of Defense authoritybut this proposal has never gone far.Presidents Truman and Eisenhowerrefused to relinquish civilian control of thel a b s, and this has been the mainstreamsentiment ever since.”

Interviews at the labs and elsewhereindicate that the outcome of the fall elec-tions may decide the issue. A Democraticadministration is expected to retain thecurrent administrative practices, t h e s epeople believe, while a Republican admi-nistration might abolish the Departmentof Energy and terminate university man-agement of the labs, or at least clamp

down on the relatively operesearch atmosphere.

Adding to the renewaquestion is what Herbert Yo r kterms “the mess at Liverm o r e.” Last fall, it was revealed that the lab faced $35million in cost overruns beyond the original $1.2 billioe s t i m a t e, to complete the national ignition facility, a superlaser intended to test the nuclear arsenal without having tset off test explosions. Th eproject lost its director lass u m m e r, after investigatordiscovered that he did nohave a doctorate.

The Gove r n m e n tC o n n e c t i o n

The Department of Energwas blistered last spring in report to President Clintoabout Los Alamos and Liverm o r e. “Brilliant scientifibreakthroughs at the nucleaweapons laboratories camwith a very troubling record osecurity administration,” s a i dthe group of four authorsheaded by former RepublicaSenator Warren Rudman anincluding Sidney Drell. Th eDOE “has been the subject oa nearly unbroken history odire warnings and attemptebut aborted reforms.” Th ereport called the DOE a “ b i g

Byzantine and bewildering bureaucracy.”Pushed by Congress, the departmen

adopted the report’s advice to police thlabs more efficiently through a new National Nuclear Security A d m i n i s t r a t i o n ,semi-autonomous agency within the dep a r t m e n t . Robin Staffin, DOE senior scence advisor, said in an interview thacongressional action required workinwith the CIA and FBI to clear foreigscientists from China and other Asian anformer Soviet countries, thus creatininevitable delays in hiring or inviting scientists from such countries. He hoped thawith time and increased efficiency, f u t u r edelays might be avoided. S t a f f i n , who oncworked at DOE’s Stanford Linear A cc e l e r a t o r, said he hoped that “things woulstabilize and that we’re soon past thidifficult period.”

Others are not so sure. One scientiswho has dealt with the DOE for years, b u twould only speak without attribution, s a i dthe department “has put up with as mucas possible to calm down Congress ankeep their heads down during the electionDOE is always the whipping boy. Like thDepartment of Education, it has the presd e n t ’s lowest interest level.

“ The new Republican president wireplace DOE. They have done somstupid things, and Congress is worked uenough for UC to walk away.Without UCthe labs will lose many top scientists whare there because of UC. If LockheeMartin comes in, they are gone.”◆

Freelance writer Carl Irving lives in the SaFrancisco Bay area.

M e m b e rs of Congr e s sh ave questioned

whether a univ e rs i t yshould manage an

operation vital to then a t i o n ’s military

s e c u r i t y.

Astrophysicist Joyce Guzik, deputy leader of a weapons designunit, believes voluminous and confusing new security rules, aswell as a hiring freeze, have affected work at the laboratory.Behind Guzik, a $100 million Strategic Computing Complex isunder construction.

from preceding page

Paul C. White, a Los Alamos scientist for 25 years, said restrictions on visits byRussian scientists have weakened efforts to safeguard Russia’s nuclear weaponsstockpile against theft.