Otterbein works to provide opportunity to all

Recent headlines have been dominated by a national college admissions scandal in which wealthy parents bribed and cheated to get their children into “elite” colleges.

The sense of outrage and shock is justified but misses the larger issue.

The scandal highlights the fallacy that all deserving students have an equal opportunity to be admitted to an “elite” college. It’s a blatant example of the advantages of privilege, but there are many other examples in the admission processes of some institutions.

Some colleges give children of alumni preferential treatment in the admissions process, as if the right to attend is an inheritance not available to first-generation college students. Some colleges consider family wealth as a criterion for admission.

And students from families of means have access to test preparation programs.

Low-income students are more likely to work while in high school, limiting the volunteer hours and activities that “elite” colleges value. Not to mention the advantages that begin in the K-12 education system, with educational disparities between suburban, urban, rural, public and private schools.

We should use the scandal as a moment to open our eyes to this long-standing inequity, because higher education is still the best door to social mobility our nation has to offer.

Some institutions, like Otterbein University, are trying to provide opportunity to all students. We are investing more in needbased aid. We are setting transparent, inflationary 2 percent increases in tuition for the next four years. We are intentionally recruiting in underserved areas, expanding the diversity of our student body and providing student support services on campus. Family income will never be considered in who gets into Otterbein.

John Comerford, president, Otterbein University — that would then impose that type of urban, cosmopolitan, liberal governance on the rest of the nation.

The Electoral College is designed to level the influence of the states. You see we are the United “States” of America, and the states have an important role to play in the selection of chief executive.

If the Electoral College were not in place and we were relying on a popular vote, Donald Trump still would have won because he would have campaigned differently.

Matt Hooks, Columbus our priority ceases to be the students and becomes the developers.

objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.”

Protect the tree and all its branches. It is a tree of life. It has greatness and beauty in all its diversities.

Stephen Zwelling, Lewis Center

Brandon Simmons, Columbus City Schools student, Columbus