The Department of Education recently released its College Scorecard, an annual resource for students searching for schools that would perfectly match their interests. Suspiciously kept off the list this year, were conservative colleges like Hillsdale College. When the school asked why they did not appear on the Scorecard, the assistant press secretary for the Department of Ed, Denise Horn, told them it was because the school awards more certificates than two or four-year degrees and therefore doesn't meet their criteria.
In a new statement, Hillsdale rejected that claim as false and defended the university's merits, while also offering its own suggestions as to why the Obama administration conveniently dismissed them.
Hillsdale College was not included in the federal government's "College Scorecard" that was released on Sept. 12.
When the student newspaper asked why the College was not included in the "College Scorecard," Denise Horn, assistant press secretary for the Department of Education said: "Hillsdale does offer bachelor's degrees, however, because the plurality of degrees it awards are certificates, not two-year or four-year degrees, it was not included on the Scorecard at launch." This statement is false.
Hillsdale College, which is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, has operated continuously since 1844, and is recognized consistently by independent organizations — including U.S. News & World Report, Forbes Magazine, The Princeton Review, andKiplinger's — as one of the best liberal arts colleges in the country. Contrary to the Department of Education's spokeswoman, Hillsdaleissues only four-year undergraduate degrees as well as master's degrees, and does not issue certificates of any kind for academic credit.
In fact, only those schools that participate in Title IV federal financial aid programs and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which requires institutions to track and report racial demographics, were included on the "College Scorecard." This is why Hillsdale College was not included.
Hillsdale College, founded in 1844 by abolitionist Free Will Baptists, was the first college in the land to prohibit by charter any discrimination based on "nationality, color or sex." Hillsdale is proud of its heritage and has remained true to it, despite attempts by both federal and state bureaucrats to force it to count its students by race. Since 1985, the College has maintained its principled refusal to accept federal or state taxpayer subsidies, even indirectly in the form of student grants or loans.
Hillsdale College provides comprehensive data to a wide variety of independent ranking institutions that do not require it to compromise its principles by counting its students by race, and the College is confident that parents and students looking for a rigorous, classical liberal arts education will find Hillsdale College without the federal government's help.
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Wow. Sounds like this is one school that isn't going to let the Obama White House bully them into conforming to its liberal standards, including one that forces them to track its racial statistics. A 2013 Gallup poll indicates that most Americans would agree with Hillsdale in that a student's merits should be considered more than his or her skin color when it comes to the admissions process.
The president recently insisted that college students shouldn't be "coddled" from opposing viewpoints and that conservative speakers shouldn't be "silenced." Shouldn't conservative schools get the same fair treatment?
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