“Time to carve a new yardstick”
While I concur with President McGuire’s compelling perspective on carving a new yardstick on graduation rates that is more inclusive and reflective of the adult, low-income, and part-time students, there is one sentence in this article that is most salient to the issue she raises and seems to be a call for action. McGuire states: “Sadly, Verna will never exist in the calculation of graduation rates at Trinity, because she was not a ‘first-time, full-time’ freshman when she started here.” In recognizing the long history of excellent work that Trinity has done for the very students she characterizes and the need to provide such data to both internal and external entities, it seems reasonable to expect that sustainable efforts could be mounted to account for, present, and publicize institutional data that account for such students in all institutions that support and serve them. This has the potential to significantly strengthen the case for what is often unheralded work by such institutions
-Tom T. Wolfe, Jr.
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