OPINION & EDITORIAL
Stick to the ‘script
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by Badger Herald Editorial Board
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
At this month’s meeting of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, UW System President Kevin Reilly unveiled a proposal to create a dual transcript for students graduating from UW schools. This supposedly new and improved transcript would add a list of extracurricular activities to the traditional tabulation of courses taken and grades received, and if adopted, would apparently be a first-of-its-kind in the nation for a state university system like Wisconsin’s.
Though the plan is in its infancy, our initial inclination is to view the dual transcript with a dose of skepticism. Fact is, the “dual” aspect of the new transcript already exists. It’s called a resume, and it allows graduates to present employers with a complete (albeit brief) picture of themselves, from relevant skills to work experience to extracurricular activities.
Certainly, it would be naive to think nobody has ever fibbed or stretched the truth on their resume, and this fact is likely one of the driving motivations behind the dual transcript. But is UW in any better position to validate students’ claims than employers? For official school-sanctioned activities perhaps the answer is yes, but what about jobs, internships and volunteer pursuits not affiliated with the university? Will the school call an agent associated with every job or activity a student lists on his dual transcript to verify dates of employment or participation and activities performed?
It seems the school would need a massive apparatus to ensure dual transcripts are accurate and not duplicitous. Even then, exaggerations and falsehoods would surely fall through the cracks. Ordinarily, a student would vouch for the veracity of his resume. But a dual transcript would be an official university document, one that the school certifies to the world as a credible representation of a student’s life outside the classroom. That is an awfully large burden for a university to take upon itself.
While Mr. Reilly will surely provide additional details in the future, we are unconvinced that employers — through the use of interviews and reference checks — are not capable of appropriately vetting graduates. Students who avail themselves of the myriad opportunities available in and around campus are doing themselves a great service. But it is a student’s independent choice to seek out and make the most of such opportunities. In a sense, the student “owns” his extracurricular career. The university, on the other hand, “owns” the student’s academic record, and this only it should ensure.
Anonymous (February 12, 2008 @ 7:12pm):
Could I put my babysitting job on my extracurricular transcript? I think my prospective future employers in the world of high finance care that I know how to change a diaper.
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