About than 30 journalists and 9 college presidents attended

With the opportunity to speak directly to the presidents and chancellors of an array of American colleges and universities, top national and metropolitan journalists wanted to know: Why not drop the SAT?

At Columbia's annual Meet The Press Dinner, which brings together leaders from academe and the media to discuss a variety of issues, college presidents resisted simplifying the issue of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), which has come under fire as being an inaccurate and unfair measure of students' academic potential.

"The SAT is enormously overvalued as a single data point for admission," said Columbia President George Rupp, who moderated the discussion in the Faculty Room of Low Library on Nov. 9.

But Rupp and the other presidents agreed the SAT remains useful as one ingredient in a complex mix of factors used to evaluate a student's academic abilities.

The obsession with SAT scores lies not with college admissions officers, but with parents, students and the media that insists upon ranking schools according to data, Rupp said.

President Joe B. Wyatt of Vanderbilt agreed the SAT is overvalued, saying his school has conducted a "correlation probe" to determine which factors best predict a student's success in college, including high school grade point average, advance placement courses and the SAT.

"It turns out," Wyatt said, "the best predictor is, no surprise, high school grade point average."

The presidents pointed out that preparation for the SAT--through prep courses and private tutoring--are available to some, but not all, worthy students, and therefore has tainted the reliability of the test scores. Rankings, such as those published by US News and World Report, also put pressure on colleges to participate in the scoring system, the presidents said.

President Rupp makes a point, flanked by Tamara Henry of USA Today and David Marcus of US News and World Report

"So why not drop the SAT?" journalists from The New York Times and University Business magazine asked, arguing that if the elite colleges took a leadership role, the SAT could be eliminated.

However, Chancellor Ray Orbach of the University of California-Riverside explained the decision of whether to use standardized tests is not solely up to the universities.

"State after state, we have this issue of 'accountability'," he said, "and that is in the form of standardized tests, like it or not."

Wyatt of Vanderbilt noted that in this age of standardized tests, if the SAT did not exist, some other test would take its place.

When asked about another issue that has been in the news, whether distance learning will replace the residential college experience, the presidents flatly rejected the notion.

"I believe the undergraduate experience should be primarily residential," said President Shirley Ann Jackson of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Chancellor Michael Aiken of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana stated, "Distance learning will never replace the maturation that exists on residential college campuses."

Most presidents agreed, however, that distance learning does enhance schools' ability to serve some students who otherwise would not have access to certain courses.

The media's fascination with wealthy technology-industry start-ups also worked its way into the discussion, with one reporter asking if the phenomenon of Bill Gates--the nation's richest man who had dropped out of Harvard to create Microsoft--has had an impact on college campuses.

While no presidents reported increased drop-out rates, President Judith Shapiro of Barnard said students do indeed have a new view of their path in life.

"Students no longer go on to graduate school right away," she said. "They think of their lives in complex ways." Shapiro said students view their futures as unfolding in different stages--perhaps focusing on making money at one point, but on family at another--and have resisted the idea that their life's journey is dictated by a "conveyor belt."

When asked about the consumer culture of students who expect to be prepared for the job market upon graduation, some presidents replied that this trend should not be perceived as a threat to education.

President Richard M. Freeland of Northeastern University said he was concerned with "the trend among educators to berate young people" for expressing their desire to succeed in jobs beyond college. He said students should not be forced into choosing between a liberal arts education and a practical education.

President Katherine Mohrman of Colorado College agreed, saying, "We don't do a good enough job telling students that liberal arts and science courses do prepare them."

The media dinner was organized and sponsored by Columbia's Office of Public Affairs.

About 30 journalists and nine presidents were in attendance. Click here to read the guest list.