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| Billboard near Shawnee State U. |
The report yesterday (1 Nov. 2012) from CBS news that Shawnee State U. is among the worst American
universities in terms of retention of students is hardly news to those familiar
with the history of S.S.U. Just as Central State U., has a
mission to serve poor black students, S.S.U. has one to serve poor white students in the Appalachian region of south
central Ohio. Retention rates, given this constituency, are not going to be
good. Could the rates be better? Certainly, in the case of S.S.U. At least some students used
to stay at S.S.U. only long enough to pick up their first financial aid check, but former President
James Chapman stopped the worst of that racket. But the Board of Trustees have historically made what
is bad at S.S.U. worse. Still, the rates would
have been bad even if the trustees were better and if the administration
had been better at retention.
In terms of
retention, at least, the switch from quarters to semesters was the single worse
thing that has happened in the last ten years at S.S.U. The quarter academic calendar is
better for disadvantaged students in a number of ways, including retention. But
semesters work better for advantaged students, who are much better prepared
financially and academically than disadvantaged students, sothe powers that be, most of whom
were educated at semester colleges and universities, decided higher education in Ohio could not exist half
slave and half free—oops I mean half quarters and half semesters. Uniformity in
calendar was pushed even if public colleges and universities of Ohio were very different in character and student
body. If Ohio University could not stop the
semester juggernaut, S.S.U. had no choice but to go along.
Two postings I made on the academic reputation at S.S.U. can be found by clicking on the two links below. Much of the documentation in them is missing because the damnable fee Flickr photo service summarily deleted my charts and illustrations once I switched to the free photo service provided by Google.
Two postings I made on the academic reputation at S.S.U. can be found by clicking on the two links below. Much of the documentation in them is missing because the damnable fee Flickr photo service summarily deleted my charts and illustrations once I switched to the free photo service provided by Google.
http://rivervices.blogspot.com/2005/04/ssu-turmoil.htmlhttp://rivervices.blogspot.com/2005/04/ssu-turmoil.html
