NEED-BLIND. Anyone who's been on a college tour or read a book about universities has heard this term. A need-blind school professes not to use a student's ability to pay to attend as a criterion for admissions. The University claims to be need-blind, but by tracking students based on financial status, the administration has shown that this clearly is not the case. The University must stop its practice of tracking in order continue to call itself need-blind.
Last Wednesday, The Cavalier Daily revealed that the College of Arts & Sciences' development office tracks some applicants to the University based on how much money their families and friends can contribute. Students are prioritized in lists: Applicants ranked "A" are expected to be worth at least a $10 million donation.
Tracking students based on their connections to wealth is degrading. It emphasizes the financial assets students will bring to the University, rather than their academic contributions. No student is to blame if her parents and friends -- who have no place in the admissions process anyway -- don't have millions of dollars to dole out. The student's academic and personal merits should be the sole factors in admissions.
But in reality, that's not always how it's done. Among students placed on the waiting list for admission, wealth can be the deciding factor in gaining acceptance to the University. Dean of Admissions John A. Blackburn told The Cavalier Daily, "If it's going to benefit the institution, there are a few cases where I will actually change the decision." In the class of 2003, 20 students on development tracking lists were admitted to the University.
Not only is this practice offensive, it goes against explicitly stated University policy. If administrators are fully informed of rich students' financial status during the admissions process, they violate the University's financial aid statement. This statement, which appears on the application for admission, informs potential applicants that "Admissions to the University is need-blind; we read your application without regard to your financial circumstances." The statement also asserts that the administration addresses money matters "in a process that runs parallel to, but separate from, the admissions process."
When applicants read this statement, they have the right to assume that money will play absolutely no part in the admissions process. Need-blind can be interpreted literally: The admissions office never should see the financial status of applicants. That's what students are led to believe when they apply -- in fact, it's what they're promised.
But the University isn't keeping that promise. There's a discrepancy between stated and actual admissions policies, at least in the College of Arts & Sciences. It's easy to be two-faced when one face is hidden, and until Wednesday, the administration presented only its purely need-blind facade to the public. In fact, Assoc. Dean of Admissions Linda Miller and Board of Visitors members Charles M. Caravati Jr. and William H. Goodwin Jr. told The Cavalier Daily that they'd never heard of the College development office's tracking practices. If such important people were in the dark, it appears that there was something to hide -- the possibility for an applicant to buy admission to the University.
Now administrators openly admit to and support the tracking of applicants who have connections to people with money. They claim, rightfully, that it's money that makes the University go 'round. These wealthy applicants bring donors who provide us with libraries, computers and stadium renovations. Certainly this is true, but the University can no longer have the best of both worlds. It can't continue to lie to its applicants.
If the University continues tracking, it must cease to call itself need-blind. But eliminating this term could discourage applicants to the University. Less wealthy students might choose to apply to universities where they feel they're on equal footing with others, not disadvantaged because they can't -- and don't know anyone who can -- donate millions.
If the University completely removed the term need-blind from its statement, a prospective student likely would feel more comfortable applying to a school such as Harvard, which is one among many universities with a straightforward guarantee of need-blind admissions. This is far more assuring than a disclaimer warning applicants that their money might matter.
And rich students may want to prove that their personal accomplishments, not their connections to the wealthy, can get them into college. Maintaining a non-need-blind policy might lessen the University's applicant pool at all economic levels, damaging the University's reputation. Therefore the consequences of continuing to track students could have more harm than benefits.
So instead of changing the financial aid statement, what the University must alter is its actual admissions practices, in order to live up to its need-blind reputation. This would require that money never be the deciding factor -- or any factor at all -- when the admissions office chooses whom to accept to the University. Tracking -- the loathsome practice of seeking out the rich at everyone else's expense -- has no place in our admissions policy. Compromising the integrity of the admissions process is a high price to pay for a handful of donations.
(Jennifer Schaum is a Cavalier Daily associate editor.)
Read More
EDITORIAL: Scapegoating students will not stop hazing
By Editorial Board | 6 hours agoInstead of retroactively responding to extreme hazing allegations, we, and especially the University, must begin asking more probing questions about the role of fraternal organizations on Grounds.
EDITORIAL: Celebrating and reflecting on The Cavalier Daily’s independence
By Editorial Board | 6 days agoOur independence grants us the ability to ask the hard questions and to say what University representatives cannot.
ARRAS: U.Va. must revise the Sexual Assault Prevention Training module
By Aoife Arras | April 17, 2024In addition to its failures in interactivity, the module lacks details specific to the University and discusses key concepts in universal terms.
