SLOW THE RACE TO COLLEGE

SLOW THE RACE TO COLLEGE
Washington Post: It's October and the heat is on for high school seniors hoping to win admission to selective colleges and universities across the country. Many of them are staring at a Nov. 1 deadline for an early-decision application -- one that might snare them a spot in a freshman class but that also requires them to settle right now on one school and promise to attend it if accepted. It's an approach that has become an integral part of the applications game: Many selective schools are filling substantial portions of each freshman class with early applicants, and more and more students are taking that route. But after this year, applicants to Mary Washington College in Virginia won't be among them. The school announced last week that starting next fall, it will join the University of North Carolina and Beloit College in Wisconsin in dropping early-decision admissions. It's a welcome stand that's in students' interest.
Premature choices
Martin Wilder, Mary Washington's vice president for enrollment, said too many students are being pushed into premature choices. The more they see others applying early, and the more slots selective colleges fill with early applicants, the greater the push to get in the game. That's bad on several fronts. It forces still-maturing high school students to make binding college choices much sooner than the traditional May 1 deadline for accepting regular offers of admission. It works to the disadvantage of those who are less well-off: Students who apply early-decision can boost their chances of acceptance, but they lose the opportunity to shop among several schools for the best financial aid package. Last spring, when UNC announced its decision to drop early-decision admissions, Vice Provost Jerome Lucido said the school had concluded that the program put minority and low-income students at a disadvantage.
When the early-decision process began, it was viewed as something that would help both students and schools, but now at least some educators are becoming concerned about the effects on applicants, Mr. Wilder said. For some who are firmly set on the path they want to take, it does offer the chance to get a quick answer and enjoy senior year. In the end, though, it's the selective institutions that have been the big beneficiaries. They get to lock in appealing applicants early, raising their rate of acceptance and thereby their rankings in college surveys. Individual schools that step off the early-decision track run the risk of losing attractive applicants to competitors still on it. It's much easier to bemoan the flaws of the game than to take the gamble of giving it up.
FREE HAITIAN ASYLUM SEEKERS
Miami Herald: Ten months after the Immigration and Naturalization Service began to detain Haitian asylum seekers as a matter of policy, every federal agency involved in the decision shirks responsibility for it. Just as disturbing, the Bush administration hasn't provided a compelling reason for singling out Haitian refugees for such harsh and undue treatment.
That's why Congress should compel the INS to treat Haitian asylum seekers the same as it does those of other nationalities: Release those who have been found to have credible fear of persecution and give them a fair shot at making their cases.
Testimony offered to Congress provides ample reason to do so. If anything, this country should be more attentive to Haitians' claims of persecution given Haiti's increasing political violence and the government's inability to contain it.
Persecution
Sitting before the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, Marie Jocelyn Ocean testified about the persecution she fled in Haiti. She said, "My family was politically active, and we all spoke out against Lavalas Family" -- the governing party. As a result, her father and brother were killed. Another brother was stabbed. Her 9-year-old daughter was kicked in the mouth.
"When my life was in danger because they were threatening me . . . I had no other choice but to flee because there was no one to protect me in Haiti," she said. "I know that many of the other women I was detained with also suffered terribly in Haiti. Yet they continue to suffer because they are still detained."
Ocean, however, is one of the few Haitian refugees granted asylum since the policy change in December. One reason so few were given asylum is that they were subjected to expedited procedures that denied them due process. Most had no attorney and no command of English or the legal process.
Some 100 Haitian asylum seekers remain locked up after 10 months, according to testimony by Cheryl Little of the Florida Immigration Advocacy Center. Most await decisions on their appeals of asylum cases.
Others have been deported only to face more violence. Little told of three women deportees who were shackled during the return to Port-au-Prince. Upon arrival, they were jailed in a crowded cell without water or a toilet; their families had to pay $400 for each to be released. One woman returned to Raboteau, an area of Gonaives beset with political violence. She now is in hiding.
In court documents in March, the INS stated that the detention policy was put into effect to deter a mass exodus from Haiti. Yet, Florida Sen. Bob Graham noted that the U.S. Embassy in Haiti cannot point to any signs of such an exodus.