26 June 2010

A Loss for Oyster Bay/East Norwich - Severely Curtailed Summer Community Band Concerts

People who will understand this post the most are people who grew up with me in Oyster Bay/East Norwich, but for those of you who didn't, my school district has a tradition of over fifty years of having a community band. This provided students (including my brother and me) with the opportunity to play music at free summer evening concerts over the summer. It allowed students to play a variety of music, and to perform with other musicians from around Long Island. While the Oyster Bay East Norwich Central School District School Board sponsored the concerts in the past, although they increased the budget this year, this article says they were unable to find the money to sponsor the concerts. This is a disappointment and a true loss to Oyster Bay/East Norwich.

23 June 2010

Artificially Raising Law School Grades

I read this article in the New York Times about how Loyola Law School Los Angeles has decided to add .333 points to each student's GPA to make each student more competitive on the job market.  This will be done retroactively.  While, to some extent, I sympathize with the law school and the students (the legal job market is not good right now), I do not think that this is the right way to go about doing it.  First, a grade is a measure of performance, and if one artificially raises it, that measure of performance is severely damaged if not destroyed.  Second, for Loyola Law School Los Angeles, after this New York Times article, I do not think that anyone will respect their students' transcripts ever again. 
I hope Dickinson doesn't do this.  The grade earned should be the one on the transcript.