Alex Posecznick
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501707582
- eISBN:
- 9781501708404
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501707582.003.0001
- Subject:
- Education, Higher Education
This introductory chapter talks about the individuals engaged in the ongoing activity required to work at Ravenwood College on a daily basis, specifically, their struggles, competing agendas, ...
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This introductory chapter talks about the individuals engaged in the ongoing activity required to work at Ravenwood College on a daily basis, specifically, their struggles, competing agendas, tensions, triumphs, and deliberations. Much of this analysis designates the institution's position in a hierarchy of excellence, particularly, on the lower end of the scale. In the ongoing, postsecondary hierarchy premised on elitehood, selectivity, resources, and prestige, Ravenwood was peripheral at best. Despite the extraordinary commencement ceremony, and what some call Ravenwood's “special spirit,” the American context positioned the institution as mediocre. Its service to nontraditional students (in terms of race, gender, and class) was starkly overshadowed by the pressure to maintain its position in the meritocracy.Less
This introductory chapter talks about the individuals engaged in the ongoing activity required to work at Ravenwood College on a daily basis, specifically, their struggles, competing agendas, tensions, triumphs, and deliberations. Much of this analysis designates the institution's position in a hierarchy of excellence, particularly, on the lower end of the scale. In the ongoing, postsecondary hierarchy premised on elitehood, selectivity, resources, and prestige, Ravenwood was peripheral at best. Despite the extraordinary commencement ceremony, and what some call Ravenwood's “special spirit,” the American context positioned the institution as mediocre. Its service to nontraditional students (in terms of race, gender, and class) was starkly overshadowed by the pressure to maintain its position in the meritocracy.
