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    UM chooses enrollment veteran to fill new vice chancellor position

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    University assembles vaccination task force

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    A look into the fluctuating Oxford food truck business

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    UM band plays together for the first time this year

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    UM chooses enrollment veteran to fill new vice chancellor position

    Mississippi voters passed Initiative 65. What’s next?

    Mississippi voters passed Initiative 65. What’s next?

    Thousands of scholars rally behind fired UM professor

    Campus prepares for flu season, ‘uptick’ in cases

    University assembles vaccination task force

    Oxford man shot, killed by police after domestic violence situation

    Gallery: Drive-Thru Drag Show

  • Sports

    Gallery: Ole Miss women’s basketball defeated by Mizzou 86-77

    Gallery: Ole Miss men’s basketball falls to Florida 72-63

    Rebels bring home Outback Bowl trophy after 26-20 win over Indiana

    Gallery: Ole Miss defeats Indiana 26-20

    Ole Miss receives bowl-game invite despite LSU loss

    Ole Miss vs Arkansas

    Ole Miss football’s Elijah Moore and Kenny Yeboah to focus on NFL Draft

  • Arts & Culture

    The secret to The Luv Shak’s success

    A look into the fluctuating Oxford food truck business

    A look into the fluctuating Oxford food truck business

    Film Festival brings classic pastime to a new generation

    UM band plays together for the first time this year

    UM band plays together for the first time this year

  • Opinion
    Cartoon: The way you in my business

    Cartoon: The way you in my business

    Opinion: Insulin is far from “cheap like water”

    Cartoon: Vice president-elect Kamala Harris

    Cartoon: Vice president-elect Kamala Harris

    Opinion: We need civility in American politics

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Opinion: The pandemic is an opportunity to reimagine access to education

Ainsley AshbyAinsley Ash
September 9, 2020
3 min read

It is no secret that American education is fundamentally flawed and unequal – beginning with K-12 school funding derived from property taxes and ending with disproportionate educational attainment along racial and economic lines. The COVID-19 pandemic and all of its chaos is changing how we approach education and what we deem as “success.” Could this be an opportunity for administrations to reimagine access to education?  

Anyone who has been through a public school knows how much time and energy teachers put towards “teaching to the test” rather than simply teaching. The scores correlate less with academic ability and more with socioeconomic factors – factors outside of a person’s control. In the spring, all states received a pass on mandatory end-of-year testing. Whether or not they decide to continue testing this year and beyond is yet to be decided. 

Similarly, more than 60% of four-year colleges and universities are now test-optional for fall 2021 admissions, according to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing. This isn’t only applicable to high school seniors. Graduate schools are dropping the GRE after online testing raised concerns about fairness for low-income students, especially for those who don’t have consistent internet access or access to their own room for four hours.

Due to COVID-19, a huge portion of our daily life has transitioned to the digital world – learning, working, socializing. We are realizing what can be done online and what cannot. For the most part, a lot can be done remotely. 

While there is immense value to in-person learning, it comes at an immense cost. The University of Mississippi’s in-state cost of attendance for this school year is $25,752. However, for students living at home, the cost of attendance is $19,488. After four years, these cost differences add up, especially if a student is funding their education through loans. 

Each student’s situation is different. In a national survey, 60% of students and graduates reported that they fear that anxiety over student loan debt is growing out of control, while others reported physical effects as well. For many, the amenities and experience of being in-person pale in comparison to thousands of dollars of student debt and paying upward of $3,000 to live in a dorm that may be shut down due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

Even after the pandemic, universities should consider offering more options to complete a degree remotely. This may not be feasible for all courses, but does a three-hour lecture class truly require a student to join in person when they could just Zoom instead? As time goes on, research and data will show us the right ways to learn digitally. It will be up to administrations to act on that data. 

Universities are selling an experience, but students don’t need the full package of “student life” to succeed. At the University of Mississippi, this means the “Ole Miss” experience – composed of game days in the Grove and Greek life. For the safety of the community and the ease of students who are financially burdened, now is the time for the university to reorient its priorities. Perhaps, with education stripped bare during the pandemic, this moment is an opportunity for us to get back to the basics: educating students. Standardized testing and in-person learning are important because we say that they are important – not because they inherently are. 

Let’s meet students where they are at this moment in time and in doing so, we can continue to create more thoughtful means of accessing quality education. 

Ainsley Ash is a senior public policy leadership major from Meridian, Mississippi.

In Case You Missed It

Gallery: Ole Miss women’s basketball defeated by Mizzou 86-77

4 days ago

Gallery: Ole Miss men’s basketball falls to Florida 72-63

4 days ago

UM chooses enrollment veteran to fill new vice chancellor position

7 days ago

Rebels bring home Outback Bowl trophy after 26-20 win over Indiana

2 weeks ago

Gallery: Ole Miss defeats Indiana 26-20

2 weeks ago

Ole Miss receives bowl-game invite despite LSU loss

4 weeks ago

Opinion: The pandemic is an opportunity to reimagine access to education

Ainsley AshbyAinsley Ash
September 9, 2020
3 min read

It is no secret that American education is fundamentally flawed and unequal – beginning with K-12 school funding derived from property taxes and ending with disproportionate educational attainment along racial and economic lines. The COVID-19 pandemic and all of its chaos is changing how we approach education and what we deem as “success.” Could this be an opportunity for administrations to reimagine access to education?  

Anyone who has been through a public school knows how much time and energy teachers put towards “teaching to the test” rather than simply teaching. The scores correlate less with academic ability and more with socioeconomic factors – factors outside of a person’s control. In the spring, all states received a pass on mandatory end-of-year testing. Whether or not they decide to continue testing this year and beyond is yet to be decided. 

Similarly, more than 60% of four-year colleges and universities are now test-optional for fall 2021 admissions, according to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing. This isn’t only applicable to high school seniors. Graduate schools are dropping the GRE after online testing raised concerns about fairness for low-income students, especially for those who don’t have consistent internet access or access to their own room for four hours.

Due to COVID-19, a huge portion of our daily life has transitioned to the digital world – learning, working, socializing. We are realizing what can be done online and what cannot. For the most part, a lot can be done remotely. 

While there is immense value to in-person learning, it comes at an immense cost. The University of Mississippi’s in-state cost of attendance for this school year is $25,752. However, for students living at home, the cost of attendance is $19,488. After four years, these cost differences add up, especially if a student is funding their education through loans. 

Each student’s situation is different. In a national survey, 60% of students and graduates reported that they fear that anxiety over student loan debt is growing out of control, while others reported physical effects as well. For many, the amenities and experience of being in-person pale in comparison to thousands of dollars of student debt and paying upward of $3,000 to live in a dorm that may be shut down due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

Even after the pandemic, universities should consider offering more options to complete a degree remotely. This may not be feasible for all courses, but does a three-hour lecture class truly require a student to join in person when they could just Zoom instead? As time goes on, research and data will show us the right ways to learn digitally. It will be up to administrations to act on that data. 

Universities are selling an experience, but students don’t need the full package of “student life” to succeed. At the University of Mississippi, this means the “Ole Miss” experience – composed of game days in the Grove and Greek life. For the safety of the community and the ease of students who are financially burdened, now is the time for the university to reorient its priorities. Perhaps, with education stripped bare during the pandemic, this moment is an opportunity for us to get back to the basics: educating students. Standardized testing and in-person learning are important because we say that they are important – not because they inherently are. 

Let’s meet students where they are at this moment in time and in doing so, we can continue to create more thoughtful means of accessing quality education. 

Ainsley Ash is a senior public policy leadership major from Meridian, Mississippi.

In Case You Missed It

Gallery: Ole Miss women’s basketball defeated by Mizzou 86-77

4 days ago

Gallery: Ole Miss men’s basketball falls to Florida 72-63

4 days ago

UM chooses enrollment veteran to fill new vice chancellor position

7 days ago

Rebels bring home Outback Bowl trophy after 26-20 win over Indiana

2 weeks ago

Gallery: Ole Miss defeats Indiana 26-20

2 weeks ago

Ole Miss receives bowl-game invite despite LSU loss

4 weeks ago

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