Bake sale.

[Gob]

A California students' group has sparked a racism and sexism row over plans for a bake sale in which people are charged according to their ethnic background and gender.

Campus Republicans at the University of California, Berkeley say critics have overreacted to their event planned for this week, which they insist is a protest over affirmative action.

The group's Facebook page lists the price of baked goods at the sale according to race: $2 for whites, $1.50 for Asians, $1 for Hispanics, $0.75 for blacks and $0.25 for Native Americans.
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"$0.25 FOR ALL WOMEN!" it added.

Campus Republican President Shawn Lewis said the idea of the "Increase Diversity Bake Sale" was to highlight a legislative bill to let California public universities consider race and gender in their admissions process.

He said they planned to go ahead with the sale on Tuesday despite protests and threats. "We didn't expect the volume, the amount of response that we got," he told CNN.

"In the first few hours, hundreds of posts on our Facebook page. And the tone of some of the responses - we expected people to be upset. We didn't expect personal threats to be made.

"They were implicit and explicit threats made to the organisers of the event, from burning down the table to throwing our baked goods at us and other kinds of physical threats."

But the famous US college's student Democrats president, Anais LaVoie, has asked for an apology.

"The way they made the statement, the words that they used, the fact that they humourised and mocked the struggles of people of colour on this campus is very disgusting to me," LaVoie said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-students ... z1Z0Br6c1M

[The Hen]

"The way they made the statement, the words that they used, the fact that they humourised and mocked the struggles of people of colour on this campus is very disgusting to me," LaVoie said.

Humourised, however spelt, is not a word. Even if it is very disgusting to you.

Though I do wonder at what sort of reaction this stunt was going to get in the first place.

[rubato]

Having worked with UC students for 10 years I can say that it is so useful that a small fraction of them volunteer to act as the negative examples for the rest.



yrs,
rubato

[quaddriver]

Before too many pages are spent ignoring the maint point: Is the college right or wrong in using race as a primary or even relevant deciding factor on admissions? Makes me almost miss the heady days of SAT and ACT scores....

[Gob]

Wrong I believe Quaddriver. Admissions to a learning institute should be decided on ability. If my kid was passed over for a place because a lesser achieving student was Asian, then I'd soon kick up a stink. Why penalise a kid for being white?

[Crackpot]

It's common practice here (it was made illegal in my state but it's being challenged) They say it's to enhance diversity but they could do that by ditching legacy students.

[Sue U]

Race/ethnicity as generally used in US university admissions is not to advance "lesser achieving" students at the expense of those "more qualified," but as a factor distinguishing among students with otherwise comparable academic and extra-curricular records. (This is as distinguished from programs required to remediate historical discrimination practiced in a state institution.)

[Liberty1]

For whatever rationalization you can envision, it's a racist policy and should be stopped.

[Crackpot]

At least in the case of U of M your race alone got you upwards of 20 bonus points (out of 100 iirc) on your admissions score.

[Scooter]

Wrong I believe Quaddriver. Admissions to a learning institute should be decided on ability. If my kid was passed over for a place because a lesser achieving student was Asian, then I'd soon kick up a stink. Why penalise a kid for being white?

The problem is that, absent affirmative action, university admissions that are ostensibly merit-based would in reality demonstrate a preference for white, affluent candidates. Legacy admissions mean that the racial makeup of the entering class will mirror that of past generations. And one of the key admission criterion, the SAT score, is a poor predictor of academic performance but is highly correlated with wealth.

Affirmative action is racist only if one is deluded enough to believe that admissions would be merit-based without it. They never have been, and never will be, and all affirmative action tries to do is to counter some of the more obvious fingers being pressed on the other side of the scale.

[Gob]

Race/ethnicity as generally used in US university admissions is not to advance "lesser achieving" students at the expense of those "more qualified," but as a factor distinguishing among students with otherwise comparable academic and extra-curricular records. (This is as distinguished from programs required to remediate historical discrimination practiced in a state institution.)

Sue, wouldn't a written test in the subject be a better way of deciding?

[Scooter]

At least in the case of U of M your race alone got you upwards of 20 bonus points (out of 100 iirc) on your admissions score.

It's 150 points, out of which up to 20 could be given based on several factors including economic disadvantage, underrepresented race, being a scholarship atlete, etc.

It's interesting that the same scoring system assigns 16 points to applicants from the U.P., but no one ever seems to claim that such a preference discriminates against minority applicants from the southern part of the state in favour of predominately white applicants from the north.

[Sue U]

Sue, wouldn't a written test in the subject be a better way of deciding?

A better way of deciding what? There are no absolutely objective crtieria for university admissions, and no one has a guaranteed right of admission to any school. There are numerous criteria apart from test scores that factor into admissions, many of them subjective and unquantifiable, and many of which have to do with what the school wants for itself rather than anything to do with an individual student. For example, I got a perfect score on my LSAT (law school admission) exam -- one of only a relative handful in the country that year -- and was denied admission to all the more "selective" schools, which certainly took many students with lower scores than mine.

[Gob]

Wow, ok, weird systems you have out there!

[Gob]

This may be an answer?

[Sue U]

Yes, you could administer yet another test. And another after that. But so what? Do you want an institution where students bring a wider variety of life experiences to their education? Do you want your students exposed to a wider cross-section of the world? Do you want your institution to make inroads into communities that will be a source of future students and, more importantly, alumni donations? Do you want students who will pursue careers and do the type of work that will enhance the institution's broader reputation?

[Scooter]

Sounds very similar to the U.S. SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test). The issue is whether any single objectively scored test will provide the best prediction of academic success. The SAT certainly falls short of that mark. Plus, it has spawned an entire industry of prep courses that mean (a) the scores are less a measure of aptitude and more a measure of test taking ability, and (b) wealthier students and students whose cultural identity most closely aligns with the test writers will score higher.

[Gob]

Yes, you could administer yet another test. And another after that. But so what? Do you want an institution where students bring a wider variety of life experiences to their education? Do you want your students exposed to a wider cross-section of the world? Do you want your institution to make inroads into communities that will be a source of future students and, more importantly, alumni donations? Do you want students who will pursue careers and do the type of work that will enhance the institution's broader reputation?

I'm sure we all want those. However we also want students to succeed and to enjoy the experience. Justifying one above the the on the colour of their skin does not in any way guarantee, or further what you want though. Does it? Two students of equal ability apply, the rich black kid gets in, the poor white kid gets kicked out. Thus defeating your objective surely?

Edirted to add;

This MUST be more fair

uniTEST has been developed to assist universities with the often difficult and time consuming processes of student selection. The test has been developed to assess the kinds of generic reasoning and thinking skills that underpin studies at higher education and that are needed for students to be successful at this level.

uniTEST assesses this reasoning and thinking across the two broad domains of mathematics and science and humanities and social sciences. The test is designed for current school leavers to complement existing selection criteria such as ATAR.

[Gob]

In case it was missed;

Equity and fairness | Print |

uniTEST is developed to rigorous professional and technical standards. Test questions are designed and developed by teams of test writers expert in their fields. All test questions must pass detailed panelling, trial testing, analysis and final review. The content, style and duration of the test are determined to ensure the testing program is relevant, fair, valid and reliable.

uniTEST test data are subjected to statistical analysis to check that each test question has performed as required. Test questions in development are carefully scrutinised in an ongoing attempt to minimise gender, ethnic or religious bias, and to ensure the test is culturally fair.

The test may contain a small number of trial questions which will not contribute to candidate scores.

[Scooter]

we also want students to succeed and to enjoy the experience

And there hasn't been a test or any other objective measure created that correlates well with that goal.

Two students of equal ability apply, the rich black kid gets in, the poor white kid gets kicked out. Thus defeating your objective surely?

No, because race wouldn't be the only factor considered in an affirmative action policy. Economic disadvantage would also come into it.

This MUST be more fair

uniTEST has been developed to assist universities with the often difficult and time consuming processes of student selection. The test has been developed to assess the kinds of generic reasoning and thinking skills that underpin studies at higher education and that are needed for students to be successful at this level.

uniTEST assesses this reasoning and thinking across the two broad domains of mathematics and science and humanities and social sciences. The test is designed for current school leavers to complement existing selection criteria such as ATAR.

Once again, these types of tests are good measures only of the ability to take these types of tests, and little else.