March 21st, 2008

Patrick Sutton

Making news today was the conclusion of a year-long saga involving MIT and James L. Sherley. After a 12 day hunger strike last year, Shirley filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The claim was dismissed by the EEOC based on the fact that it was submitted late, but the EEOC maintains that there was no merit to the claim regardless.

While racial tension and educational privilege are far from new to higher education, the accessibility issue can be seen under a new light when taking into account factors like distance learning; the echo boom, and increased competition among for profits and not-for-profit institutions.

With increased population size and increased competition, in the last few years we have seen traditional brick-and-mortar schools turn down more students than ever before— Traditional brick and mortar institutions like MIT might continue to operate as usual, while newer schools or schools that have recently gone online in the hopes of attracting students from new geographic or sociographic areas will experience more changes.

Both types of institutions benefit from advances in technology however: newer and expanding schools can monitor and track the most successful direct response enrollment marketing methods for finding and retaining students, while more traditional schools can increase the quality and depth of admission pools.

Seen from the other side of the recruitment process, the student also benefits from increased accessibility. Now more than ever there are schools that fit the wants, aspirations, and lifestyles of students.

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