Short but sweet article from NPR – here – on how college recruiters don't visit rural schools at the same rate they visit suburban and urban schools.
In Missouri, I know while I was still in school I heard complaints from Tour Team members who said Mizzou didn't recruit inner-city Kansas City and St. Louis schools at all because it's more difficult to get kids out of those schools. This article argues it's the same in rural districts.
While I understand that Missouri is a school with finite resources – and, thanks to state funding, it's tighter than it's competitors – I think this lack of contact with poorer areas in the state is a major factor in the contempt for Mizzou in those places. Rural Missourian legislators run on platforms of austerity and even punishment for the state university. I'd like to see someone at Mizzou step up and open doors and build relationships in rural Missouri in the same way Howard Richards has in St. Louis. This will pay dividends beyond just recruiting the next crop of college students. It will create a better relationship in the legislature and for generations to come.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
In Missouri, I know while I was still in school I heard complaints from Tour Team members who said Mizzou didn't recruit inner-city Kansas City and St. Louis schools at all because it's more difficult to get kids out of those schools. This article argues it's the same in rural districts.
While I understand that Missouri is a school with finite resources – and, thanks to state funding, it's tighter than it's competitors – I think this lack of contact with poorer areas in the state is a major factor in the contempt for Mizzou in those places. Rural Missourian legislators run on platforms of austerity and even punishment for the state university. I'd like to see someone at Mizzou step up and open doors and build relationships in rural Missouri in the same way Howard Richards has in St. Louis. This will pay dividends beyond just recruiting the next crop of college students. It will create a better relationship in the legislature and for generations to come.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
