Read on Twitter
THREAD: I’ve been reading all the stories & headlines about how the UC system has enrolled a record number of Latinx students and it has been disheartening to see so many publications report the news uncritically 1/8 https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-07-16/latinos-uc-berkeley-diverse-class-history
I want to preface this by saying that yes this is unprecedented and historic. It’s great, and the UC deserves coverage for this 2/8
As an editor for @Triton_News, I had a word for a story or pitch that uncritically covered powerful institutions: a press release. Our job as journalists is not to give powerful institutions good PR; it’s to keep them accountable. 3/8
If there’s a story that paints an institution in a positive light, even with context, that’s good. But, the stories and headlines of UC’s Latinx enrollment do not have that context. 4/8 https://edsource.org/2020/latino-students-make-up-largest-ethnic-group-of-students-admitted-to-uc/636230
As a reader & a journalist, the historic enrollment deserves coverage, but I’m more interested in how the UC treats Latinx students. Diversity by itself is not good enough if a lot of these students won’t have the support they need to graduate 5/8
According to the UC’s own data center, the retention and graduation rates for Latinx students are much lower than white students. 6/8 https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/ug-outcomes
I want to know what the UC is doing to retain all the Latinx students they’ve accepted. What support services are they offering? How are they going to make sure these students stay? What is the experience of Latinx students at a UC? What struggles do they face? 7/8
So far, I haven’t seen any major outlets answer those questions. When I was an editor for @Triton_News, I would have rejected any pitch that did not include that context, and it’s upsetting to see that a student publication has higher standards than major publications /END
