Bob Howitt Blog

First, a longstanding complaint and futile request: consider that a graduate has paid (with help from multiple sources to be sure) his or her college bills for multiple years, adding up to many thousands of dollars. Agree that most now describe higher education as a business. In a normal business, a longstanding customer gets a reward—a bottle of scotch or a box of candy or a discount on the latest invoice. Graduates should not have to pay for their cap and gown!

Moving right along, as everyone knows, most of what happens at a college graduation revolves around waiting, somewhat offset by the on-going fashion show. For a good seat, one must arrive early and be willing to endure the glares of others when you inform them that you are saving those six empty chairs. Then, at last, the opening procession, which typically seems interminable (could they not import a Disney staffer for the simple process of getting people to quickly fill the seats, and later, walking up front for the diploma, and still later, recessing), as do the majority of speeches–including the awarding of honorary degrees, where every single word of legalese adds to the time required–and, finally, the anxious wait for the reading of your student’s name.

Similar to football, where 60 minutes of game time is about 22 minutes of true action, a two-hour graduation ceremony incorporates a small number of minutes of direct interest to the attendee. And the messages from the guest speakers are unchanging. “Make a difference, live your hopes– not your fears (Mandela), be the change (Ghandi), seek justice, challenge yourself, give back, volunteer, carpe diem.”

So sitting there for the full two hours, there is time for some observations:

From the smallest to the largest school of higher education, the evidence is clear: the country is increasingly comprised of multiple minorities. And unsurprisingly, the composition of the student body in this regard typically leads that of the staff, with diversity within the ranks of leadership and administration considerably behind.

Which raises the question of how and when the distribution of power in this country will be significantly changed, as seemingly it must to more closely resemble the student body as it enters the workplace and becomes represented in organizational and governmental life. Will this shift in power happen gracefully or with great rancor.

Thinking of seismic shifts reflective of demographic change and the acquisition of higher education credentials, presumably bringing about economic mobility, will the children of landscapers, of fruit and vegetable vendors, of small clothing store proprietors eventually be hiring white men to perform the necessary chores of a new class of homeowners? Will the racial ratios of those employed in serving others in restaurants and parking lots be flipped?

In the classroom, will Gabriel Marquez –and numerous others—take a greater share of reading time as that of William Shakespeare declines. Will doctors who are more culturally sensitive take market share from those who will undoubtedly argue they are more technically skilled.

Socially, will the growth in campus collaborations lead to even more mixed marriages and ultimately push the Census Bureau to give up its archaic approach to ethnic classification.

How does one square the traditional anti-corporate attitude of many collegians with the existence of large company brand names everywhere on college campuses: Subway, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, Qdoba, etc., etc. Has the animus been usurped by the allure of the Facebook social media world, whose users are either ignorant of the underlying business models or simply choose to ignore them. Or is it a type of collateral damage — a victim of overblown expectations by Obama acolytes who missed the history class which was supposed to teach them that there are three branches of our government (which, among other attributes, makes it resistant to dictatorial ambitions, however attractive specific policy initiatives might appear).  Or perhaps the focus on unreported sexual assaults on campuses, bullying everywhere, and gay and transgender rights has taken some of the protesting energies in different directions.

Not to worry, graduation day is one of unrestrained joy, particularly if the student happens to be the first one in his/her family to get a college diploma. John Jay College’s President was especially exuberant, leading graduates in a mass selfie, to be on Instagram before anybody sat down probably. Hey, it was the school’s 50^th anniversary, as was noted by the multiple speakers, whose message was live-streamed internationally, reflecting the graduate diversity metric of 80+ countries.

Yes, there is time for pondering heavy topics and yes, there are some nits worthy of criticism, but –to slightly modify a favorite expression–on this special day, they are the dust on the piano bench…the graduation of your student is the vibrant music!http://bobhowittbooks.com/?page_id=22

COUNSELORS WITHOUT CLOCKS

I realize it is fantasy to think that guidance counselors, whether at high schools or at non-profit organizations which facilitate students going on to higher education, do not eventually have to look at the clock when spending time with a student.

And I know that said counselors are increasingly burdened with paperwork and functional responsibilities which cut their aggregate student time, but it would be ideal to have a counselor assigned to a student as early as possible, let’s say the first year of middle school. (As is true with rigor in the teachers colleges themselves, the requirements to become a guidance counselor should likewise be raised.)

By starting early (including defining for the new student the role of a guidance counselor) and being consistently there for the student, the counselor would really know the person and be able to understand the drivers (both academic and personal) behind the student’s thinking, thus avoiding the dilemma of attempting to react at the last minute to a senior in high school suddenly announcing his future intention.

As a practical matter, maybe interaction at the younger years could be done once a year, as a baseline, and subsequently updated, information-gathering activity. This would provide the context for future short meetings, which eventually would be focused on more specific to-do items than in the initial conversations.

This approach would address the dilemma of too many young people in underserved high schools who find out important information too late in the projected process of applying to college or pursuing marketable skills.

Appropriate guidance counseling beginning years earlier would be associated with greater success at every step of the education ladder, enabling different participants to focus on what they do best.  The “ideal” would be the most effective.

http://bobhowittbooks.com/?page_id=22

Finally, our “thin” Guide, eminently more usable, is available in Spanish.

Click here for your free copy.

There are multiple approaches to the issue of getting low income students into college, and yet it appears that procedural failure is commonplace. According to a recent Hechinger Report, “up to 40% of [said students] do not show up for college even though accepted.” The percentage seems high, and this lamentable situation has almost never happened to students where I have been directly involved, but I was not shocked by the list of reasons.
Here is why students did not make it to day one, despite being accepted. I have provided appropriate reactions/recommendations.

• Confusion over what is a grant and what is a loan. Grants are not repaid and loans are. The confusion sometimes begins with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) process. To elaborate, the FAFSA application typically results in a Pell Grant, which like all other grants, does not get repaid. The same application often brings Federal Direct Loans (also referred to as “Stafford”), which must be repaid; the repayment period does not start until six months after college graduation.
• Missed deadlines. High schools could do better in having homework, etc. deadlines which were not rubber in nature, flexible to the point of destroying the true meaning of the word deadline. Practice in meeting true deadlines might trigger the correct reaction to the deadlines imposed by colleges.
• Parents nixing the dorm idea as being unsafe. This is often a culturally-based objection, and it is understandable (mixed gender dorms can drive any parent a little crazy), but the decision should come earlier in the process. Nobody within commuting distance is forced to be in a dorm. The mileage to a non-commuting college is known at the beginning; it should not be a last minute discovery.
• Delay in federal loan money arriving at the college. There is no control here, except that filing the FAFSA as early as possible is always a good idea.
  Note: there has been an important recent positive change with respect to FAFSA. Students desiring to attend college in September, 2017 will be able to file FAFSA as early as October, 2016 and can use data from 2015 tax returns. This filing date is earlier in the college application, acceptance cycle than before, making financial planning easier to accomplish. The student’s ability to provide financial documentation for FAFSA is easier because the required tax return is now that of the prior year. In addition, this means that those filing FAFSA can access tax data through the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, now reportedly available to only 20% of filers.
• College bureaucratic attitudes are often intimidating. This is absolutely true, and students accustomed to being deferential to those in power are quite naturally put off. The only solution is one of perseverance, determination to reach the goal of becoming a college graduate, despite the nonsense.
• One-third of FAFSA filers are selected for verification. When a student files his FAFSA, he is told that his application might be selected for verification; this simply means that the government wants additional information. This causes some concern as undocumented parents may believe that this information is shared with other government agencies. This does not happen. Note that if a parent does not have a tax return, an employer can sign a letter verifying the person’s income.
• Confusion over the state residency requirement. Regardless of the rules at a college regarding documentation, state (public) colleges nearly all have physical residency requirements (typically one year) when it comes to the rate they charge students. Again, this fact is knowable at the outset.
• The immunization form has not been received by the college. Get this done early and be a nag about the forms being sent to the school.
• Non-payment of health insurance. Often the student believes the insurance part of the college bill is optional, when it is not unless the collegian is covered by the parents’ insurance. And the tab is maybe $1500. Again, this is a fact knowable ahead of the decision-making process.
• Young people who were prospective first generation collegians did not have somebody trusted to talk with, to get answers to the questions posed above. This is the crux of the matter, which is why my approach to interacting with a student has always (a) included a comprehensive baseline interview that is not conducted with an eye on the clock and (b) emphasized communication—creating an atmosphere in which students feel comfortable bringing questions to the fore without feeling that they would be found at fault for being uncertain about what to do in a specific circumstance.

Some observers will respond to the dynamics described above by citing the extensive information available on a long list of college-related websites, in effect saying that students should be able to independently find answers to their questions.
For others, including myself, without contradicting the existence of extensive information, the conclusion is somewhat different: clearly there is a need for more on-point guidance counseling available to low income students. This is true both at the high school level, which would be ideal, or at the various non-profit and profit-making entities alike who purport to provide that assistance. The budgetary challenge is that more informed and compassionate people, what are now called “human capital,” are needed. To use the organizational term, there is a minimum amount of “scalability,” which makes the commitment quite expensive.
Maybe there is a financial/operational compromise: a system of staffed Help Desks, located where low-income students are clustered. The focus would appropriately be on this single issue: getting these aspirational individuals into the very colleges at which they have been accepted.

This book is for Latino high school students who are thinking about going to college. Maybe you already know what college you want to attend, your major, and what your career will be. Or maybe you’re still undecided about college and how to pay for it. Or perhaps you’re thinking about pursuing another option, like training for a specific marketable skill or signing up for the military.

Whatever your situation, this book will help you decide whether college is for you. If you choose to go, this book will show how to select the right one, how to pay for it, and how to achieve academic success once you get there. But college may not be the best choice for everyone; this book may help you decide why another path may be better.

What makes this book different from other books about college is that it contains the voices and experiences of Latino students who are currently in college or who have graduated from college. They faced and overcame many of the same worries and challenges that you are facing in making the college decision. Throughout this book, you’ll hear about their experiences with choosing and paying for college, doing well academically, campus life, and preparing for a career.