Last week, the U.S. News and World Report released the annual rankings of the best colleges in the U.S. Emporia State was ranked 36 out of the 56 public Regional Universities in the Midwest.
ESU ranked below Washburn University at 18 and Pittsburg State at 33. Fort Hays and Wichita State did not make it on the list. KU was ranked number 46 on the national list and K-State was number 73, out of 111 schools.
Schools are judged based on peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni involvement and donations.
But John Schrock, professor of biology, said that ESU’s knowledge of its students is what separates it from bigger schools like KU and K-State.
Teachers at ESU have an open door policy that allows students to contact their professors anytime with questions or concerns.
“I don’t think anyone here really cares that we don’t have the prestige,” said Kristen Baggett, junior print making major. “I’m here because of the price and distance from my home.”
Distance from home and affordability seem to be a common factor for many students in their decision to attend ESU.
Jessica Roth, sophomore business administration major, said “(ESU) is affordable and not far from home.”
But others have a different view of ESU.
Yasmin Henderson, senior art therapy major, said that she initially chose ESU because of location, but she will not be continuing at ESU for her graduate courses.
“I know there is better opportunity out there,” Henderson said “Mainly I feel like the course work is dumbed down and standardized.”
She said that teachers should incorporate more assignments such as student forums, debates and research projects that encourage intellectual thought and self-teaching.
“It’s lecture, test, lecture, test – it’s just written memorization,” Henderson said. “Where is the intellectual growth?”
Still, Schrock said there are some problems with how schools are ranked. U.S News and World Report judges schools as a whole, places a heavy weight on reputation and puts value in the number of students instead of degree programs.
“They are looking only at the surface.” Schrock said. “The quality is at a program level, a quality in teachers.”
Schrock said the report places a heavy weight on a university’s reputation, almost 25 percent of the score. Schrock also said that this results in elite reputations continuing, even though the programs and students have changed, and he compared this ranking system to beauty pageants.
Another problem with the ranking system is that when universities try to increase retention and graduation rates they decrease the value of a degree, according to Schrock.
“If you want to have higher retention and graduation rates, you need to increase admission requirements well beyond the basic Qualified Admission,” Schrock said, “so that only college-able students attend the state schools.”
To view the full results, go to Usnews.com.
Khaili Scarbrough
Proving Lemak’s insanity will be tough task Strategy is seldom successful, according to legal experts.(News)
Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) March 6, 2000 | Gutowski, Christy To her family, a lifetime in prison is the same as a death sentence for Marilyn Lemak.
“We’re going to trial,” defense attorney Jack Donahue said. “This will not be a plea. There is nothing they can offer. Life (in prison) is death.” But by arguing that Lemak is not guilty by reason of insanity, Donahue will attempt what many legal experts say is rarely tried and, when it is, seldom successful.
He said the Naperville woman was psychologically shattered on March 4, 1999 when police say she suffocated her children – Emily, Thomas and Nicholas.
The prosecution, led by DuPage County State’s Attorney Joseph Birkett, is expected to portray the killings as premeditated and fitting a manipulative pattern.
A jury is expected to weigh the two characterizations this fall during a trial that may last up to six weeks and involve dozens of witnesses.
“The trial is going to be quite involved and complicated with all sorts of twists and turns,” Donahue said.
At the heart of the proceedings is the seldom-used insanity defense. The strategy is pursued about eight to eleven times for every 1 million crimes, one study found.
The Lemak defense has joined the ranks of other high profile murder defense teams who have used the insanity plea. Most have failed.
To win a not guilty verdict, defense attorneys such as Donahue face an awesome task. Proving mental illness isn’t enough.
The law requires proof that because of mental disease or defect, the defendant lacked the ability to understand that his or her conduct was criminal.
State lawmakers in 1995 tightened the insanity defense so defendants have to establish “clear and certain” proof of their insanity at the time of the crime. The prior law was less stringent.
Donahue argues the law unfairly shifts the burden onto defendants, who are presumed innocent.
Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Egan agrees it shifts the burden to the defendant. “But it is the law, and it’s been constitutionally upheld,” he said. here insanity vs p90x
Egan, along with defense attorney William Kunkle, prosecuted John Wayne Gacy and emerged successful on March 9, 1980 when a jury rejected the insanity defense. Gacy was executed May 10, 1994.
One big misconception among the public, Egan said, is the concept that because someone is “crazy,” they are insane.
“John Wayne Gacy had several personality disorders, but he was not legally insane,” he said. “Was he crazy? Sure. But he didn’t fit the very narrow legal concept.” Prosecutors say they will look for signs that the murders were premeditated, that Lemak tried to flee or that she tried to cover her tracks as proof she was conscious of committing a crime. insanityvsp90xnow.com insanity vs p90x
They contend she methodically planned the children’s deaths so her estranged husband, David, would be the first to find them. She also tried to kill herself, but failed, police say.
Other prosecutorial evidence includes the chilling 911 tape in which she admits to killing the children.
Donahue sees the admission as a plus, arguing it supports her insanity.
“Admitting it is nothing,” he said. “Actually, it is more of an insanity defense for someone who did admit it as opposed to someone who covers their tracks.” That’s what tricked up Gacy, Egan said. Jurors fixated on the crime scene, how Gacy stacked the bodies of some of his 33 victims on top of each other, lying end to end, in a crawl space. While in custody, he drew a meticulous diagram showing how each of the bodies were positioned in the crawl space.
“They (jurors) told us, ‘We just figured, with everything this guy did, he had to know what he was doing. He had to have his wits about him,’ ” Egan said.
But several defense attorneys have successfully argued the insanity defense even after plenty of premeditation was uncovered.
John Hinckley, for instance, was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the shooting of former President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Some legal experts attribute public outrage over the Hinckley verdict as the reason states such as Illinois made it so tough to pursue the insanity defense.
Another example in which the insanity defense triumphed involved a gruesome 1982 murder in Elmhurst.
Kurt Johnson was charged with using a pair of scissors and five knives to kill and mutilate his 58-year-old father, Russell, an undertaker, and his mother, Leona, also 58, in their home.
Johnson, a diagnosed schizophrenic, remains in a mental health facility despite several unsuccessful attempts to move him to less- restrictive centers.
Like Lemak, both Hinckley and Johnson showed premeditation, experts say.
“You can still premeditate and not know the difference between right and wrong,” said noted law professor Ralph Slovenko of Wayne State University, who authored the 1995 book, “Psychiatry and Criminal Culpability.” DuPage County Public Defender Stephen Baker successfully won an insanity defense in 1994 for Gerald Lukowski, a Bensenville man who during a 25-hour standoff shot and permanently injured a Wood Dale police officer.
Baker argued Lukowski could not control his actions because of a mental disease or defect. That prong of the insanity law no longer exists in Illinois.
Because Lukowski had a history of delusional thinking, Judge Ronald Mehling recommended long-term in-patient psychiatric treatment.
Lukowski claimed his name was written in blood at Brown’s Chicken in Palatine, where seven people were killed in 1993. He also said the CIA and FBI were out to kill him, and that he could talk to newscaster Dan Rather through the television.
Baker brought out a lifetime of Lukowski’s delusions as evidence.
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Legal experts expect Donahue to call Lemak’s parents, siblings, school teachers, friends, doctors and anyone else to prove a basis for his defense.
Her psychological, family, educational, behavioral and physical history will be probed in detail.
“The major focus of questions is on the mental state at the time the offense occurred, but all these other factors are touched upon,” said Jonathan Kelly, medical director of the Isaac Ray Center in Chicago.
When arguing an insanity defense, attorneys open up their client’s life from day one, Baker added.
“If you’re a good attorney, like Jack Donahue is, you’re not just going to be looking at the immediate day before and after, but looking throughout her entire life to see a pattern.” Still, he argued Donahue has a rough road ahead of him.
“If he’s got a sympathetic (defendant), you never know, maybe he’s got a chance,” Baker said. “But, because the way the law is structured, it’s really tough.” Gutowski, Christy
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