Study: Many seniors
lack basic knowledge
By Janice Simon
■ The Cameron Collegian
Cameron U
and Wendy Bounds
■ The Daily Tar Heoi
U. of North Carolina
One out of four college seniors sur
veyed in a recent Gallup Poll could not
name the century in which Christopher
Columbus landed in the New Wurld
The survey, commissioned by the
National Endowment for the
Humanities, provides dismaying evi
dence that students are not learning
much of what an educated person should
know, according to an NEH spokesman.
The results also said that 58 percent
of the seniors surveyed didn’t know
Shakespeare wrote “The Tempest," and
55 percent couldn't identify the Magna
Carta Twenty-three percent said Karl
Marx's phrase, “Erom each according to
Ins ability, to each according to his need."
is part of the U.S. Constitution
"The survey results prove colleges
need to revise their curricula so that
undergrade get a broad education,” said
NEH chairwoman Lynne Cheney
Cheney also released a NEH report
urging that all students lie required to
take 50 credit hours of humanities
courses to graduate
According to the report, “Students who
approach the end of their college years
without knowing the basic landmarks of
history and thought are unlikely to have
reflected on their meaning A required
course of studies a core of learning
can ensure that students have opportu
nities to know the literature, philosophy,
institutions and art of our own and other
cultures ’
The survey tested 696 college seniors
from 67 universities across the United
States. The test consisted of 87 ques
tions on a variety of concepts and land
marks NKH felt are common knowledge
Seventy-one percent of those surveyed
came from public schools and 29 percent
from private institutions. Ninety-three
percent of the students were non
humanities majors
According to the NEH report, more
than one-third of tile 87 questions were
originally designed so high school 17
year-olds could answer a majority of
them Five questions also came from the
U S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service test administered to prospective
American citizens
If the test results were graded, 55 per
cent of the students would have received
a grade of F and another 20 percent a I)
Only 11 percent would have received an
A or B grade
However, 64 percent of the seniors sur
veyed knew the Emancipation
Proclamation issued by President
Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery in
the l'mon Eighty-four percent knew
Sen Joseph K. McCarthy and the con
troversy surrounding him focused on
“investigations of individuals suspected
of Communist activities.”
The validity of the test and NEH’s pol
icy recommendations have been ques
tioned by some educators and students.
“I’m not sure even if the students are
taught these facts, that they will remem
ber them.” said Richard White, dean of
arts and sciences at Trinity College. “1
might have trouble with some of those
questions myself ”
BRIAN SHELUTO, PAILV NtBRASKAN . Of NE3RA9U
Thomas Goldstein, executive director
of the American Association of
University Students, a group represent
ing college student governments, said.
“The test itself is circumspect. Do 1 have
to know these things to be a good citi
zen?”
Cheney’s report suggests a strict core
curriculum concentrating in five main
areas: cultures and civilizations, foreign
language, mathematics, natural sci
ences, and social sciences. Colleges
adopting the program would require spe
cific courses for freshmen, sophomores
and some juniors.
Cheney recommended the classes be
taught in small classes by a school's most
distinguished faculty.
SAT
Continued from page 1
The bias may stem from questions on
the SAT, particularly those using exam
ples that are familiar to only one group,
Stockwell said
For example, a question on the SAT
might ask students to compare "merce
nary soldier" to other pairs and find a
pair with the same relationship
Because men may be more comfortable
than women with a question about sol
diers, that question favors men bv 16
percent, according to FairTest
Statistics released by the College
Board indicate that the average com
bined SAT score achieved by women m
1988 was 875 The total average for both
sexes combined was 93-1 A combined
score of 1,600 is perfect.
“There are score differences between
men and women on the SAT," said Nancy
Burton, program director for the admis
sions testing program of ETS However,
she said the differences do not stem from
a bias in test questions but rather from
the different educations men and women
receive
Men tend to take science and math
classes, she said, and women take liberal
arts classes
Burton also said each SAT question is
checked for bias five times before it
becomes part of one of the nine new SATs
created each year
A representative of the College Board,
the group that sponsors the SAT. also
said many questions that may seem
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biased — because of'the examples they
use are not biased at all.
In questions on ratio, for example, men
and women score equally well on a ques
tion that involved a cooking recipe and
a question on jogging
To examine the difference in men’s and
women’s scores, ETS and Hugters U. are
conducting a study of the SAT to deter
mine if the test accurately predicts aca
demic potential. However, Ray Nicosia,
manager of media relations for ETS, said
tiie test is not a direct reponse to con
cerns about gender difference in SAT
scores
'The SAT is always being looked at for
a variety of different reasons, and ETS
does work with a variety of college and
universities on these studies,” he said.
“These studies are ongoing.”
Student sanctioned
A U. of Mississippi student sus
pected of plagiarizing information
from Seventeen magazine for an
article that appeared in The Da:h
Mtssissippian and the October li'sH
U. The National College Newspaper
has received unspecified sanctions
from the university.
The Administrative Discipline
Committee sanctioned the student
after a blue-ribbon committee oi
professional journalists and others
determined that portions of her arti
cle were plagiarized, said Assistant
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
Jerry Lee Westbrook.
FBI releases crime data;
schools question accuracy
By Jeff Perrine
■ The Daily LobO
U. of New Mexico
If recent FBI reports are accurate, the
I ’, of New Mexico is the most dangerous
Place to attend college and Michigan’s
Macomb Community College is the
safest But police from both schools ques
tion the report's accuracy, and the FBI
admits that only a small percentage of
schools nationwide provided informa
tion for the report.
At the U. of New Mexico, 53 violent
crimes were reported to the FBI for 1988,
the highest number nationwide But
according to UNM Police Chief Barry
Cox, the actual number of violent crimes
at UNM should have been 20. A campus
police staff member sent in the wrong
data, said Cox, who has sent a letter to
the Justice Department asking tor a cor
rection. “They were counting simple
assaults, not aggravated assaults, he
said. Aggravated assaults, but not sim
ple assaults, are classified as violent
crimes.
Macomb Community College, located
in Detroit’s suburbs, reported only one
See CRIME, Page 27