Students says it's more complicated than just setting expectations

Campus Echo,

As a senior at NCCU with aspirations to attend graduate school and enter academia as a professor, I am troubled by the presumptive bias in the quotations of university administrators and professors, whose advanced research degrees are an indication of their solid training in the fundamentals of causality and reasoning, in the article "Step up or Get Out: GPA of less than 2.0 won't suffice" [Campus Echo Volume 102 Issue 3 October 6, 2010].

The tone of the article, specifically, the notion that students here at NCCU are "content" with grades lower than a "C" average is remarkably unfair and perpetuates the stereotype that HBCU's, in particular, the demographic makeup of the students, lack strong work ethic and self-motivation.

The implications of this assertion are precisely what keep employers and graduate/professional school admissions committees from wanting to employ and train our graduates. Understandably, the premise of having a "cutoff" of 2.0 GPA is noble; however, if the primary function of the university is to prepare our students to think critically and complexly, doesn't the university faculty and administration have an obligation to understand the casual reasoning behind why our student body as a whole isn't as organically engaged intellectually as our peer institutions (which would in turn, result in higher aggregate GPA, retention rates, 5 year graduation rates etc.)?

To chop it up as a "high correlation between expectations and results" is devoid of the historical disenfranchisement and "life issues" (as Mr. Alphonso McEntire so eloquently noted—albeit downplayed significantly in the article) that students here face on an hourly basis.

Since a percentage comparison to UNC was made in the article, how many of those same 80% of incoming freshman students at UNC who graduated at the top 10% of their class come from under-performing high school districts with un-enthusiastic teachers who've FAILED to adequately prepare them for the rigors of university education?

How many students at UNC have to work full or part time in order to pay their tuition and cost-of-living expenses?

How many students at UNC lack the structure and support of a family and community who've invested and nurtured their intellectual growth and development since---well---birth? How many students at UNC have been told on a daily basis by "teachers" or various adults in their lives that they are inferior with low "expectations" as a consequence of their race (or in some cases, gender or socio-economic status)?  

I am sure the percentage answers to these questions are categorically low in comparison to NCCU.

The issue of academic standards and "expectations" at NCCU needs to be realistically addressed with attention to psychological and socio-economic factors, depths of historical prejudices and racism presented in the questions asked above. In short, the glaze of a culture of "mediocrity" cannot begin to cover it all.

Also, the "expectations" of university professors to adequately teach (and actually believe that students want to learn even if it means adapting their own teaching styles/methods), of administrators to help provide resources to professors and students in the enrichment of academic growth, as well as of student leadership to effectively voice and challenge policies which are not in the best interest of the student body have to elevate in a manner which permeates throughout the entire campus.

I would be more than willing to join a group of student input in the crafting of a strategic "expectations" plan for our university. Speaking from someone with teaching experience, I am a firm believer that every student fundamentally desires to be the best they can be---scholastic self-motivation in our students needs to continue to foster with the aid of all actors in the NCCU system. That is the ONLY way we all will continue to "soar like an Eagle".

Veatasha H. Dorsey is a dual major in Political Science and Environmental Science at North Carolina Central University. She is also a Ronald E. McNair Research Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel-Hill.