Read the fine print on the next survey you take
In an increasingly tough job market and economy, student retention has become the rallying cry for many colleges and universities, MHCC included. And for good reason, too: Better retention increases revenue, and students leave with a degree – everybody wins.
However, one school in Maryland has come up with an interesting solution outside of the normal methods of increasing retention, i.e., offering better services or raising admission requirements.
The Mount St. Mary’s University president’s novel idea was to administer a student survey at the school’s freshman orientation, which would effectively help predict how successful the student would be at college. “There are no wrong answers,” the document read. The survey actually was used to determine which 20-25 students the college would cut, as later revealed by an email chain between Simon Newman, the school’s president, and David Rehm (who was demoted from a provost position in the fallout) published by the Mountain Echo, the campus student newspaper.
The highlight of the email would be Newman’s quote on not thinking of the students as “cuddly bunnies,” because “sometimes you need to drown the bunnies… put a Glock to their heads.”
Clearly, something is wacky beyond the typical bureaucratic mismanagement. The Advocate’s main complaint, though, is the school’s disconnect with the student body and employees. Any college exists for the service of its constituents, and while running a school day-to-day may force the administration to make decisions that feel otherwise, any institution like this needs to be absolutely transparent from beginning to end.
By administering a quiz under false pretenses to students who were already admitted, to weed some of them out without their knowledge, is flagrantly unethical, and what’s even worse is the firing of tenured staff members for their protest afterward.
This shows a clear disconnect between the student and staff populace, and the management at Mount St. Mary’s.
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