NACAC Changes Its Ethics Code

NACAC Changes Its Ethics Code If youve been paying attention to college-related news in recent months, you might have heard about the decision made by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) to remove several provisions from its Code of Ethics and Professional Practice. The NACAC was founded in 1937 and is an organization of more than 15,000 professionals from around the world dedicated to serving students as they make choices about pursuing postsecondary education. NACAC membership is voluntary, but members agree to uphold the Code of Ethics and Professional Practice in order to promote best professional college admission practices. Acting upon an inquiry by the U.S. Department of Justice into these provisions violation of antitrust laws, NACACs Assembly voted at the 2019 National Conference in September to remove a few sections from its code of conduct. Why? To address the Department of Justices belief that those provisions inhibit competition among colleges for students. Heres what the removed sections covered: Offering exclusive incentives for early decision. Previously, the ethics code stated that NACAC member colleges must not offer incentives such as special housing, enhanced financial aid packages and special scholarships to early decision applicants or admits. Recruiting first-year undergraduates who have committed to other schools. This section essentially prohibited member colleges from knowingly recruiting or offering enrollment incentives to students who are already enrolled or have declared their intent to enroll (or submitted contractual deposits) at other colleges. The code referenced May 1 as the point when enrollment commitments become final and mentioned the fact that colleges must respect those commitments. Two notable exceptions to the no-recruiting rule were when students were admitted from a wait list and the students initiated the inquiries themselves. Recruiting transfer students. NACAC member colleges were not allowed to solicit transfer applicants from a previous years applicant or prospect pool unless the students initiated that transfer inquiry. Colleges were allowed to recruit transfer students if they first verified that the students were enrolled at a college that allowed transfer recruitment or the students were not currently enrolled. Ultimately, the Justice Department argued that the above provisions restricted fair tradeor in other words, they prevented colleges from competing for students. Now that theyre removed, the recruiting practices of college admissions departments could change. How might this impact your college-bound teen? Time will tell, but you might see colleges more aggressively recruiting students even after theyve already committed themselves elsewhere. If colleges want certain students, they might find creative ways to entice them with financial aid or housing. Some in the industry have even questioned whether well see more high school seniors continuing to debate their college decision well into the summer before college begins. However it all plays out, one thing is certain: it is always important for your teen to make him or herself an attractive college candidate by earning good grades, performing his or her best on the SAT and ACT, and developing a strong college resume. Every college wants to attract the best possible freshman class, after all. Remind your teen that it is essential to stay focused and finish high school strong, because colleges are paying attention.

Tattoos Taboo or trendy

Tattoos Taboo or trendy My tattoos; love on the inside of my left wrist, and the crown from the Keep Calm and Carry On posters with KBO (a Winston Churchill catchphrase which stands for keep buggering on) underneath it on the inside of my right ankle. Photo taken by me. Im 28 years old, I have a BA in History and am a semester and a third away from a BA in Communications, Ive never been arrested, never done drugs, and whilst I dont get to Mass every week, I go more often than Christmas/Easter/Holy Days. I also have two tattoos. Tattoos, I might add, that werent just drunken whims. And its not just me a number of my friends have at least one tattoo, and many of those have more than one. It seems like after every semester break, at least a couple people I know at school return sporting new ink. Naturally, this got me thinking about tattoos and how society in general feels about them. So of course I did a little research. In 2009, Pew Research did an end-of-decade survey asking the American public a series of questions about the previous ten years. One of the questions asked pointed out that more people were getting tattoos than in previous decades and asked respondents how they felt about that change. Just 7% said it was a change for the better whilst 45% said the change made no difference and 40% said it was a change for the worse. Earlier that year, CBS News posted a story entitled Tattoos Becoming More Accepted at Work, which cited the statistic that 23% of college students have one to three tattoos and that 36% over a third of adults aged 18 to 29 have them. In 2010, UK newspaper The Guardian reported that a survey indicated that one-fifth of British adults are inked. Another Pew Research study, this one conducted in 2010, aimed to create a portrait of the so-called Millennials generation (those aged 18-29 in 2010). The study puts the percentage of Millennials with tattoos at 38%. By comparison, the study says that 32% of Americans aged 30-45 have at least one tattoo, and then the numbers begin to drop away sharply: of Boomers (aged 46-64), 15% have at least one tattoo, and of those above age 65, just 6% sport ink. Whilst the stigma against tattoos/tattooed individuals appears to be going strong amongst older Americans, amongst those 45 and under there is an increasing tolerance of and even enthusiasm for tattoos. This has significant implications as far as workplace policies regarding tattoos are concerned; if society in general is more accepting of tattoos, it follows that visible tattoos will become less of an issue. That being said, a full 70% of Millennials and 73% of those aged 30 or older said that their tattoos are normally not visible. Early this year, Harris Interactive conducted a new poll regarding tattoos. According to the poll, 21% of U.S. adults report having a tattoo, which is up from previous years. It seems that with the increasing number of adults with tattoos this permanent body art is becoming more accepted fewer people think it is related to deviant behavior than before yet among those without tattoos there are still several negative stigmas associated with having tattoos. All in all, each later poll seems to show an increasing amount of acceptance, or at least ambivalence as opposed to negative reactions, towards tattoos and individuals who have them. Additionally, all of the polls that ask people with tattoos if they regret getting them, a large majority (as high as 84%) said that they do not. It seems, then, that tattoos might still be taboo with older generations, but they are increasingly trendy amongst younger generations, especially college-aged individuals. If you are considering getting a tattoo, I have a few pieces of advice. Plan what you want, where on your body you want it, and where in the world youre going to get it beforehand. Do your research, especially about tattoo shops and artists in your area. You want to find somewhere that is clean, safe, and friendly. And if youre going to have their work on your body for the rest of your life, you want your tattoo artist to be someone whose work you admire. Dont get tattooed when you are drunk, and if youre getting tattoo number one its probably a good idea not to do it on a whim. Most importantly, though, do everything you can to make sure that youll be in that 84% of tattooed individuals who dont have any tattoos they regret.