The Daily Orange published an editorial on Feb. 21 that called for more open dialogue about the recent spike in the Syracuse University admissions rate — 10 percent from 2008 to 2010.

A number of responses to that editorial accused our Editorial Board of setting up a false dilemma: more diversity on campus vs. academic quality. The editors do not believe this tradeoff exists, nor did we pit these issues against one another in last week’s editorial. We believe increasing diversity with regard to race, geographic location, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender or any other identity has no effect on SU’s prestige and, in fact, boosts the quality of education by exposing students to a variety of perspectives. We observe and interact with that truth every day.

But on Monday, we called for — and continue to encourage — honest conversation about why and how a change to the admissions strategy led to an increased acceptance rate. Our criticism lies not in the strategy’s intended goal but in the lack of transparency regarding the change.

We continue to call for more transparency with regard to the rising admissions rate. The raw admissions data is inarguably troubling without the context for its changes. For instance, the number of undergraduates the university has accepted to meet its target freshman class size grew by about 50 percent in the past decade. There must be an honest, open dialogue about the reason for these changes because — as we pointed out in the editorial — SU’s academic competitiveness affects everyone affiliated with this campus.

The responses to last week’s editorial represented the kind of discussion we hoped to prompt. We recommend the Agenda Committee to add a detailed discussion of the admissions rate to the next University Senate meeting on March 23.

Katie McInerney

Editor in Chief

Kathleen Ronayne

Managing Editor

Beckie Strum

Editorial Editor

Published on February 27, 2011 at 12:00 pm