What I felt today when I read your editorial on the proposed Wisconsin Covenant ("Better than a C") was something deeper than disappointment and denser than sadness — it was profound and utter disgust. That the editorial board of a student newspaper at this leading public university would condemn the governor for attempting to expand access to our campus, and instead call for him to raise standards and preserve elite privilege — well, it's enough to make one want to give up. What are you learning here at this school if you are not developing a broader sense of inequality and social justice? The average family income on the UW-Madison campus has been steadily climbing (it is now nearly twice the state average), meaning that increasingly, students are shut out of Madison not because they do not merit attendance, but because they cannot afford it. Do you truly desire to go to school only among your increasingly wealthy peers? To only hear the ideas of students who look and act just like you? Are you so concerned with your own well-being that you cannot consider that of your neighbor? The Covenant simply says that if you fulfill your end of the "meritocratic" act, we'll make sure that is enough — we'll pay the rest. It's what the mommies and daddies of the middle and upper-classes have always said to their children. But who is there to care for the rest of us? This is not merit-based aid, it is need-based. It is targeted only to those who still have financial need after exhausting available financial aid — in other words, the truly poor. Moreover, the Covenant is based on a similar Indiana plan which has been rigorously tested and shown to be efficient and effective. How you determined that such a policy is unnecessary — when most of your peers, faculty and administrators across campus have recognized the serious social problem upon us — is beyond me. In my book, your editorial deserves an F.

Sara Goldrick-Rab
Assistant Professor of Educational Policy Studies and Sociology
University of Wisconsin-Madison