Summer School
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The Committee on Special Educational Projects was founded by the University in 1965 with two goals in mind: improve the recruitment of African-American students and support those students on the road to graduation.
Today, students enrolled in the COSEP program get a head start on the Cornell experience. In the summer before freshman year, COSEP students take classes designed to better prepare them for the the University curriculum. They meet good friends, learn about the rigors of college life and even get a Freshman Writing Seminar out of the way. As an added bonus, the COSEP program is free — books, meals, housing and all other major expenses are covered by the University.
Many Cornellians volunteer to participate in the COSEP summer program, but for some, attendance is mandatory. The University compels students to participate by tying admission and financial aid packages to the program: if students refuse to participate, their admission and/or financial aid may be revoked.
The COSEP program is founded on valuable principles of integration, but the compulsion involved in its summer session is troubling. Well-intentioned it may be, but a mandatory six-week introduction designed for Cornellians of predominantly minority backgrounds comes dangerously close to the misdeed of marginalization. Admitted students are asked to join the Cornell family, but all things are not quite equal for members of the incoming freshman class.
Cornell would argue that COSEP is imperative for all students to reach their academic potential. It’s not that some Cornellians are weaker than others, the University would say, it’s just that some applicants graduate from high schools with weaker college preparation. In a recent interview with The Sun, President Skorton reiterated the value of COSEP for recruitment and retention within the minority community. Skorton also acknowledged the issues of marginalization that surround the COSEP summer program, issues that threaten to overwhelm the program’s primary purpose of integration.
Integration is indeed a difficult task. All things are not equal for Cornellians before they arrive on the Hill, and the University has a responsibility to get its students off to a good start.
Still, the recruitment and retention of talent and diversity cannot be achieved by way of marginalization. No student admitted to Cornell University should be cast any differently from the rest of the freshman class. We are a diverse campus, but we are also students with the same academic resources and the same opportunity for academic success. Mandating participation in a six-week-long orientation program distinguishes students from one another before they even step foot on the Hill. For a campus committed to integration, such a program is a step in the wrong direction.