Given a chance

I would like to write in answer to the letter to the editor about the decrease in enrollment at NIU. The letter was not based on fact because if it had been, the author would have known that the program hasn’t been initiated in the last few years, as he states, but that the program has been at NIU for 25 years. I would like to say that the program wasn’t meant to bring NIU’s minority enrollment up to par but to give students who have trouble in high school a chance to go to college. Any student that doesn’t meet university requirements can apply. The program is CHANCE, and it’s through Educational Services and Programs. I was a typical high school student, and I came through CHANCE because my class rank was too low. My ACT was high. I don’t think that the program has any negative effect on the quality of teaching at NIU because so far I have done fine here. I am not an exception. In closing, I would like to add that I am a white female, and I do know other white students that are also in the program.

Michelle Samson

English

Sophomore