terrapinsanity.com

The Provost has been making his rounds of programs undergoing change as a consequence of the new Honors College on campus. One of the programs having a strong interest in understanding this change is College Park Scholars, which is widely seen as a tremendous ‘living-learning’ opportunity. Its track record is one of fostering tremendous outcomes for students, and it unequivocally led the campus to higher retention rates in recent years. Why? It all revolves around a single reality: the earlier you can establish a connection between a student and some local community, the more likely we’ll see a successful outcome. In this, Scholars is supreme.

Unfortunately, in Provost Farvardin’s world – the one in which recruiting needs drive everything – Scholars is a liability. You see, he has not placed it in the new Honors College since the average SATs or high school GPAs of entering students aren’t at the same level as the traditional Honors Program. (Of course, that is because Scholars isn’t given access to accepted student files until Honors is done with them, but who’s counting?)

And so it was that the Provost’s recent visit with Scholars staff did not go well. While he may have meant well by visiting with the front line troops, it’s clear things only became worse. In issuing new marching orders, he described his intention to drive all programs – including Scholars – to “test students to the breaking point.”

That statement clearly chilled most staff to the bone. Community building, and the education it enables, is all about finding creative ways to reach all students. Not everyone need get to the same successful outcome by the same means, and most staff see it as a sacred duty to spare no effort to find some way to bring all of our students into a graduation – and more. The Provost, in contrast, wants staff to behave as gatekeepers, to filter out the weak.

At one advising meeting today staff reported a discovery that one major program more so than others has recently seen students seek voluntary commitment for mental health counseling. This was wryly observed as having met the Farvardin standard. “We must be doing what they want if more of our students hit the breaking point.”

The dissonance between programs and expectations that Nariman Farvardin created in the last year only grows.