Pushing Away Vulnerable Students

In the article, "Mount St. Mary’s Ableist Plan To Push Out Vulnerable Students" the author David Perry talks about the president of Mount St. Mary's University, Simon Newman has a plan to get vulnerable students out of the school.  On the subject, Newman said, "This is hard for you because you think of students as cuddly bunnies, but you can't.  You just have to drown the bunnies...put a Glock to their heads."  This statement as you could imagine drew a lot of turmoil at the University.  The goal of education is to give students a chance to learn, possibly something or many things that could help them to reach their goals and make the world a better place.  Limiting the opportunities of students not only destroys the chance of them reaching their goals, but could also diminish their self-confidence.  This "Trumpification of higher ed" as Perry puts it, was all started by a plan that Newman implemented right after the was appointed to be the president of the Catholic university.  Students who drop out of school after the first month are not accounted for in the school's retention rate, so Newman found that if he recognized the "bunnies" during the first weeks of the school year, he could drive them out of the school without affecting the statistics of the retention rate at all.  Professors also aided with this process by advising these students to not just drop the class that they might be doing poorly in, but college itself.  These students involved included those who also had mental disabilities.

In my opinion, this is not at all how the education system should work.  If the university wanted to ween out students, then there should be a heavier focus on the acceptance process.  Students that are accepted into any college or university were accepted for more than one reason, one of which being the fact that they have the potential to achieve goals and excel in such a setting.  In addition, if these students are accepted into a school that means that to the selection committee, that student brings something to the table in terms of their academics and ability to succeed.  Coming from a college student myself, I know that college is certainly an adjustment from high school.  In some cases, it takes a couple of months for students to really begin to feel comfortable making it wrong for universities to push students away at all let alone only after a few weeks.  Students who are struggling, should be offered help and resources to help get them back on the right track.  This would help to build up self-confidence in such individuals while also allowing them to see where they might fit in in their academic futures, instead of getting rid of them as soon as possible.  That is what education is for; helping people become better learners, not saying they aren't good enough.


Citations:

Perry, David. "Mount St. Mary's Ableist Plan To Push Out Vulnerable Students - The Establishment."  The Establishment. N.p., 15 Feb. 2016. Web. 10 May 2016.