SLU to Make SATs Optional

Unsurprisingly, Take Back Our Campus Not Cited

In a press release earlier this week, SLU announced that the SATs would be optional for admission in the fall of 2006. Explaining the decision, the announcement read:

University staff has noted much concern from guidance counselors, admissions professionals and families about the SAT Reasoning Test (formerly the SAT-I), ranging from lack of confidence in the scoring system to worries that the skills tested on the exam do not relate to the skills needed in college.

We at Take Back Our Campus think this is a great idea. After all, we suggested it.

On May 15, 2004, Take Back Our Campus posted article detailing the racist origins of the SAT as well as its present outcome (still racist, in case you were wondering-- Blacks and Latinos score lower than their White counterparts even within the same economic class). We also suggested (in retrospect, with language heavy-handed and a little silly), "[i]f SLU wishes to shed the racist skins of yesteryear, it must be rid of the SAT." We continued through June 2004 to host a debate on the subject, with our (at the time, very small) readership.

Though we're pleased that President Sullivan and the administration have taken another of our suggestions, we're a little vexed as to why TBOC is still banned on the SLU campus. If, as the administration suggests, TBOC cannot possibly be used for research purposes (unlike, as the President Sullivan claims, websites for pedophiles and neo-Nazis), why are they taking credit for our ideas? After all, they can't claim not to have read our articles. They surely came across our SAT scribblings while looking for excuses to sue us.

But we owe the administration a (we admit, not ungrudging) congratulations. They've taken a big step toward ending the discrimination inherent in the pursuit of higher education.

Now then, if the administration is still taking our suggestions, about that lawsuit...