College has become the new standard for many in this country. With more people pursuing a higher education, this has its positives and negative. On the plus side, we’re giving more individuals an opportunity to have a higher standard of living and allow themselves to live comfortably.
However, with an increase in acceptance to universities, the student body’s level of performance gets watered down. While graduation rates seem to be on the rise at CCSU, it can be presumed that there are corners that have to be cut in order to make this happen.
Part of the problem stems from what is expected of an individual. From a young age, many of us are told that we are going to go to college to ensure that we can advance ourselves further than our parents. From that moment on, motivation seems to come to a halt. The only motivation that some of us have to perform at the high school level is to gain scholarships.
The scholarship process is basically a crapshoot. Good students can apply for a certain scholarship and be put into the running to be a recipient. The problem with this is, it’s not a certainty that you are going to receive a scholarship and there are usually no standards to be a beneficiary.
This past week in New Haven on the campus of Yale University, the institution’s president, Richard C. Levin, announced his plan to support the public schools of New Haven. Yale University is one of the most famous schools in the country, but it has not always been known as very generous. With tuition costs that are multiple times higher than our university, Yale has funds and support that will soon be given graduates from New Haven high school.
Levin and the university plan to provide free tuition to a state school if New Haven students can maintain a 3.0 GPA throughout high school, a 90 percent attendance rate and complete 40 hours of community service. This doesn’t include room and board, but it could save good students thousands of dollars a year.
This plan is set to work along with Mayor John DeStefano’s plan to make New Haven’s education system stronger and rise their community up from the poverty level. Here at CCSU, a plan like this should be seen as a blessing. With an expected 200-250 students benefitting from the Yale program, Central should see more than a handful of students coming in who have worked hard to get here for free.
By the time these students have gotten in to college, they are used to working hard and maintaining a level of academic performance that most of us haven’t had the motivation to do. This will raise the level of learning at this institution, which can at some times be lacking, raise our graduation rate, and hopefully strengthen our student body.
While Yale has close ties to New Haven, no one can foresee this happening with New Britain and CCSU. A guaranteed scholarship from this institution for so many probably cannot happen, but it should. If anyone would like to see New Britain rise back up to being a great city, like it once was, someone is going to have to foot the bill to get the ball rolling.