Page 4 The Broncos' Voice
December, 1991
TUITION NOT POCKET
CHANGE ANYMORE
BOULDER, Colo. (CPS) - Employees at
the bursar’s office at the University of
Colorado recently got a shock when a
student pushed a wheelbarrow into the
office filled to overflowing with quarters
and pennies - $1,134 to be exact.
The money? One year’s tuition.
The wheelbaiTOw driver was in a
definitel’m-angry-and-I’m-not-going-to-
take-it-anymore kind of mood. "It’s just
not pocket change anymore," read a sign
taped to the side of the wheelbarrow.
The angry student was William j
Roberts, a senior who said the stunt was
a symbolic gesture to inform the regents
that tuition, which just rose 7 percent, is
becoming a real problem for students.
Roberts said the money was
wrapped in paper wrappers lo allow for
easy counting by the bursar’s office
emptovees.
N A T I V E
AMERICANS
DESIRE RESPECT
by Timothy Jessie
Down in Atlanta, Georgia there
have been recent claims of racism by
some Native Americans who view the
use of the "Tomahawk Chop" and war
chants by fans of the Atlanta Braves
baseball club as "demeaning" and
"disrespectful" to them. However, the
real issue is about a thing Native
Americans have long been denied -
respect.
The recent debacle in the ’Pride
of the South’, nevertheless, is only part
of a more involved agenda on the part
of Native American activists who seek
to rid the sports world of team names
they find offensive. In fact, the whole
"Tomahawk Chop" incident appears to
have been only another incident to
hinder the Native American cause.
There probably wouldn’t have been an
altercation as such in Atlanta had the
Braves remained a pathetic and woeful
team as they were for the past eight
years. The activists want three teams
(the Cleveland Indians -baseball, the
Washington Redskins -football, and of
course, the Atlanta Braves) to change
their names.
Incidently, there is at least one
more professional team that has a Native
American ascribed mascot- the Chicago
TESTS MAY DISPEL
CONCERNS ABOUT
CULTURAL BIAS
By Amy Reynolds
(CPS) - Admissions counselors across
the country are waiting to see whether
the revised Scholastic Achievement Test
will reflect students’ abilities, especially
those of ethnic minorities, more
accurately.
The College Board, which
administers the SAT, will publish the
new version in 1994.
"We’re eagerly awaiting it,"
said Joyce Smith, associate director of
the National Association of College
Admission Counselors. "Most of us
want to know how the changes will
affect the results."
SAT results have been the talk
of academia since the release of the
1991 national average scores which
dropped two points each to 422 in the
verbal section and 474 in the math
section.
In his release of that
information, College Board president
Donald Stewart said the scores reflected
"a disturbing pattern of educational
disparity."
That disparity mostly involves
African-Americans and Hispanic
minorities, who still fall short of scores
achieved by Caucasians and Asian-
Americans. Still, African-Americans and
Mexican-Americans are the leading
groups for steady increases in their
scores.
"Every time you see a
standardized test result from a black
student, the average score will be lower
than the majority’s score," said Walter
Jacobs, director of academic support
services for the College Board, at a
recent educational conference in
Orlando, Fla. "Some people say this is
just another example that the black man
can’t cut it. ... On the other hand, we
see that blacks are the one group
constantly progressing toward better
scores."
Blackhawks (an Indian tribe) of the
National Hockey League; They are not
on the list and their absence is peculiar.
Why have Native American activists
only targeted professional teams when
there are many colleges that use Indian
tribes or references as their team
monikers? Among these are St. John
University (the Redmen), Florida State
University (the Seminoles),- and
Pembroke State University (the Braves).
That particular answer is not evident,
but the possible reasoning behind the
attacks on the professional teams is that
those names were selected without
consulting the source behind the images,
the Native Americans themselves.
Delving even further, one can
arrive at a more insightful reason for
Native American activists’ displeasure at
professional spwrts. If we look at the
incidents objectively, we can see that
the Native Americans are in search of a
t. >• I .
Educators hope the new test
will help close some of the gap. The
1991 test averages showed the
following:
* Since 1976, African-
Americans and Mexican-Americans have
shown an overall point increase of 50
and 23 points respectively. But, their
overall average score still falls about
200 and 130 points shy, respectively, of
scores achieved by whites and Asians.
Their total average scores are 930 and
940 respectively.
* Scores achiex'ed by
whites overall have dropped 14 points
since 1976. The overall ’average for all
groups taken together - 896 - has
dropped seven points.
*Men still score higher
than women (923 average vs. 861
average), especially in the mathematics
section of the test.
* Students who took
more academic classes during their
educational careers scored about 50
points higher than the national average
in both the verbal and the math sections.
"Those who took physics, for
example, had average verbal scores of
464 and average math scores of 538,
considerably above the national average
for each," said Robert Cameron, the
board’s senior research associate. "Those
who took calculus had the highest math
average, 599, and the highest verbal
average, 502."
Cameron says the College
Board is concerned about an apparent
paradox - "We are seeing more years of
study in academics and in college prep
course and still the average scores are
going down."
Much of the drop comes from
the higher percentage of ethnic
minorities taking the test - this year 28
percent of test-takers were ethnic
minorities. Of that 28 percent, 8 percent
reported that English was their second
language and another 8 percent reported
they were bilingual.
"As more of our society is
being included in the test, the more
likely you are to see scores decline,"
Cameron said.
Native Americans have been overlooked
or placed on a shelf so that the next
minority in line could be cuddled.
Moreover, we can go back to the late
18th and early 19th centuries to a time
when Native Americans were herded out
of states so that white people could
move in and claim all that "free" land.
Tragedies such as the Trail of Tears are
scattered throughout history. Once again.
Native Americans are upset and yelling
out, like Rodney Dangerfield, "We don’t
get no respect". These types of tilings
still go on for most Native Americans
even though they deserve their fair share
(and more) of respect.
These recent events and the
activities of Native American activists
should not come as a surprise to anyone.
They’re reaction is long overdue. Native
Americans have been left out of
mainstream America. America has
That greater inclusion and the
SAT’s inability to reflect different
cultures in its test question content has
helped spark the exam’s rewrite.
"There’s always been some
j suspicion about the way the test
questions are written," Smith said. "The
College Board now has established a
review board for minority education that
looks at items for bias against women
and ethnic groups."
That board has existed for
many years and the content of questions
has slowly changed to reflect more
cultural diversity, Cameron said.
The new test will not only
show more changes in content, but also
changes in form.
In its first formal change since
1975, the test will abandon its antonym,
or opposite word, questions for beefed-
up reading sections that will put more
emphasis on higher-order reading skills,
Cameron said. He calls it critical
reading.
In the math section, the primary
change will involve the addition of a
section where students generate their
own answers to problems rather than
picking an answer from the traditional
multiple choice format.
While College Board officials
are working on the changes, they stand
by their claim that the SAT, the primary
test used in 22 East and West Coast
states for college entrance, is an
accurate reflection of a student’s
academic ability.
"The bottom line is that the
College Board has always said their test
scores are extremely accurate, but what
we find is that admissions offices look
at academic records first," Smith said.
"Some kids test well and some panic
and blow it."
SUPPORT YOUR
CAMPUS!
GET INVOLVED!
forgotten them or become indifferent
and insensitive to their plight. Whatever
the cause of this neglect, it has to stop.
It is time Native Americans got the
respect they so rightly deserve.
RAISE $500...$ 1000...$1500
raox
RAISING
For your fraternity,
sorority, team or other
campus organization.
msolutmly no
INVBSTMtNT KiQUIKED!
little R-E-S-P-E-C-T. For way too long.