The Last Straw Pt. 2

Some time ago, I wrote a note that emphasized how I felt about the proposed SUNO/UNO merger that didn’t really get into too many details but just provided a brief synopsis of what I read in the media coupled with my own thoughts. Since that posting, the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education has responded to that proposed merger echoing many of my same sentiments. I wont bother posting the entire response, but you can read it here; http://www.scribd.com/doc/49543283/NAFEO-Responds-to-Proposed-SUNO-UNO-Merger. Now what I didn’t know is that Jindal has been exploring the option of this merger since 2009 when he first convened his Higher Education committee. According to the NAFEO letter, the original proposal for that merger was rejected because of the large differences in the enrollment, admissions standards, classroom size, and student bodies of the two institutions. But I guess Bobby Jindal is hardheaded and had to continue pressing for this.

As of May 4th, the House Committee has voted 10-5 to move forward with the merger of SUNO and UNO and SUNO has released a statement about its commencement exercises. This Saturday, SUNO will graduate 442 students, but according to the graduation rate guideline outlined by Jindal’s committee, only 14 of those count toward the graduation rate. So I’m wondering how can you say that an institution is failing if its boasting of 442 graduates? SUNO’s Chancellor, Victor Ukpolo, Ph.D., issued the following statement; “In keeping with our previous open-access mission, many of our students take longer to graduate, in some cases seven, eight years or more. Most of our student body is comprised of working adults, ages 25 and older, and many of them pursue their studies on a part-time basis. Prior to Fall 2010 we were still an open admissions institution, a designation which mandated us to admit practically anyone who wanted to pursue a college education,” Most of this I detailed in the first note about this merger as to why I don’t believe that Jindal has the right rhetoric to detail why SUNO is “failing.” Now UNO is a completely different story and I don’t have the facts on that one, I only talk what I know.

But all this may be for naught, because now that the House has voted to move forward, who knows where/when/how this will end. But I do know that SUBR has reason to fear and that worries me...