Simple Solutions: The CU Scandals
Ed Quillen is a former daily newspaper editor who writes a twice-weekly column for the Denver Post. He lives in Salida, a small mountain town about fifty miles from Denver as the crow flies, about a hundred and fifty miles by road, and about a hundred and fifty years in pace, attitudes, and perspective. He can usually be counted upon to provide a voice of sanity amidst the baying of the rabid hounds that live and write within the shadow of the State Capitol. Far from a country-bumpkin, he provides a laid-back and humorous perspective when it is needed. It is therefore no surprise that he has proposed a couple of simple solutions for problems at Colorado University.
He addressed two out of the three major problems in his Post column on Sunday, March 13th– “Try two quick fixes at CU.” The three problems are the Football Scandal, the Churchill Affair, and the semi-permanent Drinking Problem. Quillen suggests that Betsy Hoffman’s replacement as president will be a new broom capable of making some sweeping changes, including simple solutions for the first two problems, and we’ll give you the third ourselves after we talk about them.
The Quillen solution to the Football Scandal is to get rid of the football program. In the process of demolishing the “academic argument,” that college football programs provide educational opportunities to young athletes, he points out that while 64% of CU students graduate within six years of starting college, only 44 percent of football players do. Wait a sec… a bachelor’s degree is a four year program, and only 66% of entrants are achieving it in six years? Sounds like there might be another scandal there somewhere.
Quillen’s solution to the “Ward Churchill Problem” is equally straightforward and sensible– eliminate the entire ethnic studies department. We shared the common but apparently erroneous assumption that the ethnic studies department existed so that diverse ethnic groups could be studied along with ethnicity itself. Wrong! Turns out the ethnic studies department embraces only four ethnic groups, offering courses in “Afro-American studies, American Indian studies, Asian American studies, (and) Chicano/a studies,” where “students gain substantial knowledge and expertise in one of the four racial/ethnic fields.” That really should be double-quoted, because we are quoting Quillen who is quoting the department’s web site. Many other ethnic groups played a significant role in Colorado’s history, and are part of the rich multi cultural tapestry that is its current population, yet none of them get a mention at the state’s flagship university.
The third on-going scandal, the “Alcohol Problem,” has an equally simple solution which Quillen would probably embrace– get rid of the social fraternities and sororities. In our opinion they have no place in a public university. Not only do they contribute nothing to a quality education, they often get in the way of it (as when you drink yourself to death at a frat party). The fraternities and sororities at CU are singularly responsible for the university’s reputation as a “party school” and if they didn’t exist, who knows– the four-year graduation rate might improve.
Ed Quillen and his wife Martha are publishers and editors of Colorado Central Magazine.
–SG
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