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THE MEREDITH
HERALD
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meredithherald.com
April 10, 2019
College as a Commodity; Competing Perspectives on
the State of Higher Education
By Rebecca Dowdy, Opinions Editor
IN THIS ISSUE
NEWS
Women's NC
Recycling & Composting
Tea For Two
A&E
Boston Marriage-
Performing Arts Blurbs
Food Truck Rodeo
OPINIONS
No Ring in the Spring
Bachelor(ette)
BONUS: CSA Day Profiles!
New Academic
Building
Approved
By Olivia Slack,
Features Editor
Merediths campus will soon
have a new academic building. The
construction was approved at the
spring meeting of Merediths Board
of Trustees in March. According to
Meredith’s website, the new building
will house the Exercise and Sports
Science (ESS) program and the Com
munication program, two depart
ments that have been vying for new
spaces for a long time. The building
will be constructed near Weather- •
spoon Gymnasium, replacing the
current Weatherspoon Annex, and is
projected to be completed in time to
hold classes for the Fall 2020 semes
ter.
This new building is an excit
ing addition to Meredith’s campus for
several reasons. For one, the Exercise
and Sports Science program has been
housed in leased trailers since 2001.
However, earlier this semester the
trailers were deemed no longer suit
able for holding classes. The need for
a new space for the ESS department,
which had existed for a long time,
was heightened severely following
that call, leading to the approval of
the new building. According to Dr.
Melinda Campbell, Head of Nutri
tion, Health and Human Perform
mance, it is not only current students
and faculty who are excited about
the new building, but also alumnae
of the ESS program, who are “espe
cially elated and willing to contribute
to this expansion.” The new space
will provide much-needed labora
tory space for ESS, particularly their
undergraduate research program, as
well as areas for “athletic staff who
desperately need sufficient office
space to meet with recruits, parents,
and current players” according to
In the past few weeks, col
lege admissions departments across
the United States have been under
scrutiny, as several administrators
and coaches in America’s most elite
universities have been accused of
accepting bribes from celebrities
and wealthy elites. The Department
of Justice has arrested upwards of
50 people connected to the case,
and even Hallmark movie star, Lori
Loughlin has been accused of paying
hundreds of thousands of dollars to
secure her children’s place in USC. At
the heart of the scandal is a college
consultant,William “Rick” Singer,
who used his non-profit, Key World
wide Foundation, as a cover to accept
and transfer bribes from desperate
parents to his connections in col
lege administrations. The scandal
calls into question college admis
sions practices and advantages of the
wealthy in that process.
However, media focus on elite col
leges offers a warped perspective
of the admission process. Shery
Boyles, Meredith College’s Director
of Admissions, noted that the prac
tices of the most selective colleges do
not reflect the efforts of the rest of
America’s universities. And the facts
back her up. While institutions like
Harvard and Stanford are releasing
record low admission rates, many
more regional colleges are strug
gling to meet their enrollment goals.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
published a survey analyzing about
100 public and 250 private institu
tions and found that 44% of public
colleges and 52% of private colleges
missed their enrollment goals. Mi
chael Reilly, the executive director of
the American Association of College
Registrars and Admissions Officers,
confirms this assessment in an article
for The New York Times, saying,
“most campuses nationwide fail to
meet their enrollment goals.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education’s
survey notes that many “tuition-
dependent institutions” have had to
grapple with changes in a difficult
market. Factors like rising operation
al costs, increasing competition and
changing demographics are some of
the obstacles regional colleges must
face in order to stay ahead. Boyles de
scribed how college admissions has
changed over the past few decades,
saying that technological advances
like the internet give students ac
cess to more, information on a wider
variety of schools, perhaps increasing
the amount of competition between
regional schools.
Boyles also stated that there’s been
an increase of what she describes as
“bulldozer” parents, who want to re
move all obstacles for their children.
Bulldozer parents could explain why
college admissions representatives
report that parents are often the ones
to fill out applications and the suc
cess of the surprisingly legal college
consultation industry, as explained
by Dana Goldstein and Jack Healy in
an article from The New York Times.
Joyce Smith, the CEO of National
Association for College Admission
Counseling, wrote about the “com
modification of higher ed” in a letter
to members of the organization and
warned parents and students to stop
thinking of college as a status sym
bol and “a. commodity to be bought
and sold.” Some elite institutions
have tried to move to a more “holis
tic” review process, something more
commonly found at smaller regional
institutions, in order to be more
inclusive in their admissions process.
Regional institutions have tried to
expand their programs and boost
their marketing in order to bring in
more students.
Boyles stated that Meredith Col
lege itself has had a holistic review
process for quite some time and tries
to admit students without regard to
socioeconomic status. In fact, more
than Vs of Meredith’s student body is
eligible for Pell Grants. She says that
Meredith’s admissions counselors
read every single application that is
sent in, and they try their best to part
ner with families to make Meredith
affordable.
No matter what perspective you look
at it from, this scandal is an indica
tion that change must come for
colleges across America if they are
to stay in business and keep public
favor.
Campbell.
The Communication depart
ment, which is currently housed in
Harris Building, will benefit from the
move to a new building as well. Dr.
Teresa Holder, Head of Communica
tion, shared that the plans for the
new building came as a “complete
and really great surprise” to her
department and that they are “ex
cited to be neighbors with the ESS
program and about ways to
collaborate with them, like
with sports communication.”
Campbell shared this senti
ment, adding that her de
partment “looks forward to
sharing space with a strong
and growing Communica
tion department.”
With the Communi
cation department’s planned
vacancy of Harris, the Busi
ness program can expand
throughout the building.
This expansion will be much
needed due to Meredith’s
new Hospitality Manage
ment program, which is
accepting students starting
in Fall 2019 as a part of the
School of Business. Moving one of
the two departments housed in Har
ris to the new building will provide
more room for each department to
grow without being crowded by the
-Other.,
Though many details about
Meredith’s new academic building
have not yet been released, the Mer
edith community will no doubt be
keeping an ear out for updates. The
new academic building will bring
not only a new home for several
departments, but also new spaces
for students to study and gather. As
Campbell put it, “any time the Col
lege makes this kind of commitment
to better serve students, everyone on
campus moves forward in some way...
this building is a blessing for many
and represents a better future for us
all.”
Photo credit: Mimi Mays