Classism: the big invisible ism
One
of the university’s aims—if increasingly crowded out by others—is the
discovery and dissemination of knowledge. If this alone were the goal,
admissions might be based solely on academic promise, which grades and
test scores reflect in a limited and imperfect way. But this is not the
only mission. To many, universities today are “supposed to be the
engines of social mobility and the gateways to dreams,” as New York
Times columnist Frank Bruni colorfully puts it. This suggests
universities should consider who would benefit most from admission. More
prosaically, many universities manage several semiprofessional sports
teams, for which they must recruit, necessitating a preference for
athletes. And prestigious universities, in particular, have historically
been finishing schools for the hereditary elite, a role that introduces
criteria that favor the wealthy and powerful. This last role is
distasteful to many, but it is hard to deny that it figures in elite
admissions decision-making.
These roles can be complementary, but
they are often in tension. The elite status that powers the “engine” of
social mobility for the select few is in part a consequence of academic
excellence. But it is also, in larger part, the result of networking
with privileged young people who already enjoy the benefits of wealth
and family connections. The effect of this preprofessional social
networking—the chance to rub shoulders with and learn the habits,
customs, and social mores of people whose success is guaranteed by their
inheritance and their parentage—is powerful.
think
absolute power depends on absolute control over knowledge, which in turn necessitates absolute corruption
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