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Dave Larsen writes about higher education.Home > Blogs > On Campus > Archives > 2008 > February > 20
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
McCain made a second stop in Dayton
Senator John McCain made not one, but two campaign stops in Dayton today.
One you heard about and had a chance to attend, the one held at Young’s Jersey Dairy in Yellow Springs. That event was well-publicized, and about 500 people showed up.
The other one was closed to the public.
After the lunch-hour Young’s Dairy event, the Republican Presidential hopeful went to Sinclair Community College to hold a private event with “area supporters,” according to a news release sent by Sinclair around 3:45 this afternoon. Sinclair notified the public after the event that McCain had stopped there. The private meeting was held in Sinclair’s Conference Center, known locally as “Building 12.”
“The by-invitation-only event was a stop on McCain’s campaign trail to gain additional support in Ohio prior to the upcoming March 4th primary,” the release said.
The Dayton Daily News was told Tuesday that McCain was attending a private event in Dayton in addition to the dairy visit on Wednesday, but wouldn’t disclose the location. Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, said McCain would meet with key backers but that it was not a fund-raiser.
About 50 people attended the Sinclair meeting, including Sinclair’s President, Steven Lee Johnson.
While there, McCain talked about community colleges and encouraged people to volunteer for his campaign. From Sinclair’s statement:
During his comments to attendees, McCain emphasized the link between workforce development and economic strength. According to Dr. Steven Johnson, president of Sinclair, “Senator McCain stressed that America’s community colleges are the most appropriate and effective location for workforce development education. That is a sentiment we heartily agree with.”
So if the college’s president was in attendance, and McCain spent time stumping and talking about community colleges and workforce development (Sinclair’s specialty), why close it to the public? Sinclair said their hands were tied because it was private, at the client’s request.
“We just did what we were told,” said Sinclair Spokeswoman Natasha Baker in a phone interview this evening. “His campaign paid for the room like anyone else, and they made that decision, not us. We honored that request.” Sinclair actually wanted to make it a public event, turn it into a rally similar to the Chelsea Clinton visit last week, but was flatly told no, to their disappointment, Baker said.
The event has some people wondering about the openness of public campuses. And the secrecy of it will only lead to speculation about the nature of the event.
Baker said McCain’s rental of a conference room for a private event was no different than other local organizations who hold private events, such as an annual meeting, at its conference center.
No surprise there that the campaign wanted it closed to the public. Candidates don’t want to woo major supporters in the public spotlight, and potential donors are media-shy. They’re entitled to keep it private. Baker did not know if any public officials or Sinclair trustees were in the room, adding that as far as she knew the only college personnel permitted to be there was Johnson.
Some might say McCain’s campaign choosing a public campus for a private event with key backers, then telling the campus to keep a lid on it, put Sinclair in an awkward position.
Is a public college campus an appropriate venue for a single candidate’s political wooing? And finally, how public are public campuses? Should private groups be permitted to have closed meetings on public property?
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: Ohio Primary
What’s up with PSEO now that they need to fix it?
Some readers had some questions about my post on Strickland’s “Seniors to Sophomores” program.
Mary and Ohdave, I have some answers for you on PSEO. First, I wrote a follow-up story on the current PSEO system in the Dayton Daily News and you can read a summary here and more detailed story here.
For answers to questions about the current PSEO program differs from Strickland’s proposal, and how it works (or doesn’t), keep reading.
Strickland’s proposal differs from current PSEO program in that it guarantees that if a student wants to spend the entire senior year on a college campus, they can. For some reason the system now doesn’t easily allow that. I’m sure it has something to do with articulation of high school to college courses, and vice versa. It’s a lot of work right now for hs guidance counselors and college officials to do a one-to-one match. Otherwise, no, it’s not much different. I think Strickland is trying to get colleges and high schools to work out kinks in PSEO to make it easy for students to participate.
Also the funding system will be different so that high schools don’t lose a portion of state funding to colleges when a student earns the high school credit through a college instead of the secondary classroom.
In current PSEO system, the state funding that a high school receives for a student follows the student - so if a student is taking a college course, a portion of the state funding ordinarily given to the high school goes to the college to pay for the course. High schools are not fond of this funding system, and I’m told that’s why they don’t promote it (PSEO). What the end up doing, however, is setting dual enrollment arrangements with colleges outside of PSEO to avoid the state funding snafus altogether. So there are students earning college credit, it’s just not paid for under the PSEO system.
About the difference between dual enrollment and PSEO: Dual enrollment is a general term for students earning college and high school credit simultaneously. In Ohio it’s used most often to describe the program outside of the PSEO system. So yes it’s different term, I suppose.
The PSEO system, in which students can earn both high school and college credit, is better described as a policy and the state’s funding mechanism for paying for it. Participation in PSEO does not accurately reflect the number of students earning college and high school credit. There are tons more. I’ll be doing a story soon on who those students and where they earn credit and how.
About what kinds of credit students are earning: Most are taking arts and humanities courses (English) and science courses. There is evidence (see my story) that of course these kid are ready for college-level reading, writing and math simply because they spent time in those courses already. But students are also earning college credit through AP testing. Centerville High School, for example, has many AP courses beyond the traditional math/english/history (psychology, business, it’s stunning). There’s plenty of opportunity there for earning college credit.
My sense is that academically qualified students are cobbling together PSEO, dual enrollment and AP courses. And Ohdave, you’re right - high schools want to be sure that college-level intro courses are as rigorous or more rigorous than their high school equivalents. Fingerhut and Strickland are working on that too.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Higher education politics, University System of Ohio
