I started dating my husband 31 years ago as a freshman in college. When he first met me he would tease me (sweetly, of course) how I often mixed up expressions and idioms. Like when I said, "play it by year" instead of "play it by ear," or when I said (and sometimes still say) "bite your lip" instead of "bite your tongue."
During that first year of college, I didn't always see the historical or literary meanings behind words, terms, and ideas. But my four enlightening years of college taught me how to uncover the deeper meaning and story behind everything from a piece of art to a philosophical theory to politics.
Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Education issued a mandate ordering colleges to end all diversity efforts from student programming to admissions by the end of February. I told myself I needed to embody my favorite idiom and "mind my p's and q's." I want to be measured about my words and recommendations. It is so easy to react with fear or anger. I want to react with logic and care.
It starts with the timing of the mandate. This is the most chaotic time in the college admissions process. Most colleges are knee-dip in making decisions on the majority of their applicant pool—not just for freshmen but also for transfers. Changing course right now would be equivalent to telling a group of astronauts who just landed on the Moon to take an entirely different and untested route home to Earth. It would be risky, to say the least. It doesn't mean it couldn't be done; it just couldn't be done safely in the timeline that was given.
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The demands of the mandate are clear, but they are impossible to fully implement in the current structure. Anyone who has worked in college admissions would know this instinctively. The Department of Education stated that race could no longer play any role in admissions decisions. That means colleges cannot "use students’ personal essays, writing samples, participation in extracurriculars, or other cues as a means of determining or predicting a student’s race and favoring or disfavoring such students." Pay attention to the use of the word "cues." It is the most subtle, yet complex aspect of the admissions process.
Practically speaking, a college could redact racial references (using AI) in college essays, activities lists, and honors lists. But the "cues" of a student's race are all over the application. Admissions officers can infer race by the student's name, parents' names, home address, high school, country of origin, languages spoken at home, and more. In fact, the "cues" are impossible to fully redact from an application unless ID numbers replace students' names and only GPAs and test scores are provided to colleges.
I am minding my p's and q's. But if that is what the admissions process is forced to become, it won't just change the literal face of American higher education; it will change the soul of learning. The story behind the words will no longer matter.
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I thought about not telling a story, and instead, just telling the facts in today's blog. Then I was reminded that my college education taught me to always consider the origin, meaning, and story from our past when facing present-day challenges. The "cues" of my life are far from perfect, like how I used to struggle with idioms. Yet, I have learned to use cues to achieve a deeper understanding of words, conflict, and people. Life is about minding your p's and q's. But my life, my college education, and my experience evaluating college applications taught me something more—p's are nothing without cues.
