A Personal Note: Matt Gossage Leaves MICDS
Matt Gossage, the Head of MICDS (Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School) announced last week that he was leaving to head the Cannon School in Concord, N.C. My youngest son is in the seventh grade at MICDS and has been at MICDS since the first grade; my hope is that he will remain in the MICDS class of 2011 through graduation. So far, so good.
I am deeply disappointed that Matt Gossage will not be there to hand him his diploma. His departure is a loss to MICDS and therefore to myself and my family. We wish the Gossage family the best, but we will miss them.
Matt came to MICDS in 1994, shortly before we moved back to St. Louis. Matt has provided exceptional leadership and sound judgment to difficult issues over those twelve years that gave meaning to the words in the school’s mission, written during his tenure, think critically, live virtuously and compassionately.
I can look at my own son, who has thrived at MICDS, and know that Matt Gossage was leading the school in a positive direction; and I can look at Matt’s children and see that not only is he an awesome leader, he is an awesome father.
Each month Matt writes "ending point" for the school newsletter. I always look forward to reading it. This month he wrote, "It is my hope that our school and our homes will continue to provide the spaces for children to discuss these dilemmas that life poses….I hope we can use the 24 hours entrusted to us as we work together with these children to give them the places to talk about the tough decisions between good and good."
I don’t know for sure, but I do wonder if Matt was talking about leaving MICDS. I do know that his departure poses a dilemma for the parents and children of MICDS. Knowing that he must believe that it is the right decision, we are nonetheless sad to see him go.
As a classmate of my son said to his mother, "But Mom, Mr. Gossage knows my name." Yes, he does seem to know everyone’s name… and we will always remember his.
Technorati Tags: MICDS, Matt Gossage, Cannon School
Discrimination at SIU????
The Chicago
Sun-Times reported that the Justice Department has accused SIU (Southern
Illinois University) violating the Federal Civil Rights laws (Title VII) by
discriminating against whites, men and others in their graduate fellowship
programs. The programs cited were:
FELLOWSHIP: Bridge to the Doctorate Started:
2004 Award: $30,000 stipend, plus $10,500 for education expenses Purpose: "For
underrepresented minority students to initiate graduate study in science,
technology, engineering and math.” Budget: $985,000 Number of awards since
inception: 24 (19 blacks, 5 Latino, 1 Native American)
FELLOWSHIP: Proactive
Recruitment and Multicultural Professionals for Tomorrow Started: 2000 Award:
Tuition waiver and $1,200 monthly stipend Purpose: "To increase the number of
minorities receiving advanced degrees in disciplines in which they are
underrepresented.” Budget: $158,000 Awards since inception: 78 (61 blacks, 14
Latinos, 1 Asian, 2 Native Americans)
FELLOWSHIP: Graduate Dean’s Started: 2000
Award: Tuition waiver, $1,000 monthly stipend Purpose: "For women and and
traditionally underrepresented students who have overcome social, cultural or
economic conditions.” Budget: $67,000 Awards since inception: 27 (16 whites, 7
blacks, 4 Latinos) SOURCE: Southern Illinois University
Well, yes to qualify for
these programs one must be a minority, or traditionally underrepresented but
don’t almost all fellowship or scholarship programs at every university have
requirements that by definition exclude someone? When I applied for a graduate
program at Washington University George Warren Brown School of Social Work in
2002 I was given a packet of information that included a long list of
scholarship programs.
My recollection is that most of them had specific targets
that included everything from academic performance, math majors entering social
work, those currently employed in the non-profit sector, non-traditional
students (i.e. older than faculty) to "traditional" minorities and the
underrepresented. Didn’t the GI bill require military service and by applying the
standards that the Justice department is apparently apply to SIU, thereby
discriminate against those unable to serve in the military.
I found it interesting that Small Town Veteran writes, "I myself dropped out of the University of Illinois after two
years due to financial problems, at the same time as hundreds of
Chicago blacks were receiving a free ride just for being black, and
enlisted in the Air Force hoping I’d still be around in 4 years to use
my GI Bill benefits."
Again, aren’t those GI Bill benefits limited to those who served in the military? Certainly those serving in the military deserve the GI Bill benefits but the benefits do exclude those who were not able to serve in the military but may have wanted to.
As The
Color Blind Society notes, it is hard to write, "SIU puts whites and men at
a disadvantage" with a straight face. I presume that these three fellowships are not the only fellowships or scholarships being offered by SIU. It is reported that minorities make up 8% of the student body at SIU (92% of the population are not minorities!?!) which I believe would indicate that despite the three fellowship programs that the "playing field" is far from level and that it would be hard to support that "discrimination" is preventing whites and men from attending SIU.
Technorati Tags: SIU, Discrimination, Fellowships, Scholarships
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