Complicated definition

The College Board's annual survey says college tuition has increased by 10.5 percent this year, just another statistic in the ongoing debate regarding college affordability. \nAccountability has been the buzz-word in more than a few discussions of post-secondary education. So it's with little surprise that critics are expressing their concern about the way legislators gauge an institution's accountability, which brings us to the Higher Education Act.\nThe act authorizes the distribution of more than $60 billion in grants and loans to low-income and moderate-income college students, making their dreams of post-secondary education possible with a little federal funding -- federal funding that is released to schools based on the institution's level of excellence.\nBut how is "excellence" measured?\nCritics disagree as to whether legislators put too much emphasis on graduation rates. \nWe feel that an institution's ability to produce graduates shows a level of accountability, but rates shouldn't be the focus when rating a school's excellence.\nHere at IU, graduation rates are based on the rate at which first-time, full-time students complete a bachelor's degree within six years. The statistic doesn't take into account those students who begin at one institution and, for any reason, transfer to another to finish their degree. For students who enrolled at IU in 1996, 69.1 percent graduated within the given time. This, in fact, puts IU above the national average and ahead of the other IUs: IUPUI, Kokomo, IU-PUFW, and so on.\nSo what does this say about the other branches?\nWe say, "Not much." \nLegislators need to look at an institution's ability to prepare its students for whatever they decide will be their next step, whether it's a move into the professional world or to another institution.\nI am writing in response to your editorial on the subject of getting too many basketball tickets ("The tribulation of tickets," Oct. 19). Are you out of your minds? My last two years at IU, I distinctly remember everyone around me complaining that their ticket packages were scaled down when they wanted to go to every game. The ticket office misjudged the amount of people who wanted to attend games, then on top of that extended, the deadline to order tickets, and then had to tell those who ordered on time and those who were too lazy and registered late that neither group would get the full package that they had expected. Which leads me to two points: 1) There is a serious problem in the IU ticket office. And 2) Stop complaining about getting too many tickets because plenty of people, like myself, went around buying tickets from scalpers last year (in IU basketball's worst debacle of a season in 30 years) because we weren't given enough tickets. Boo hoo, you have to go to every single home game. I didn't see this as a problem when we were winning the previous year. Either decide that you are actually a fan or not, and if you are, then stick with the team through thick and thin. Don't go get six tickets so that you can go to a basketball game just to go. Get zero tickets or get all of the tickets; suck it up and re-figure your budget. Go Hoosiers!