达人 2.11 A174 (427) 球拍！！！

daidarenUID: 2354215

TOPIC: ARGUMENT174 - The following recommendation was made by the president and administrative staff of Grove College, a private institution, to the college's governing committee.

"We recommend that Grove College preserve its century-old tradition of all-female education rather than admit men into its programs. It is true that a majority of faculty members voted in favor of coeducation, arguing that it would encourage more students to apply to Grove. But eighty percent of the students responding to a survey conducted by the student government wanted the school to remain all female, and over half of the alumni who answered a separate survey also opposed coeducation. Keeping the college all-female, therefore, will improve morale among students and convince alumni to keep supporting the college financially."
WORDS: 427
TIME: 01:00:00
DATE: 2010-2-11 11:30:10

In this argument, the author conclude that Grove College (GC) should preserve its century-old tradition of all-female education rather than admit men into its programs, therefore to improve morale among students and keep the financial supporting from alumni. To sustain it, the author presented a survey which indicates that eighty percent of students' respondents and more than half of alumni are agree with this conclusion. The recommendation suffers from several critical flows which make it unconvincing.

First and foremost, the prerequisite in this argument is unpersuasive. In the survey that conducted by the student government, the author only present the statistics about the respondents, but no referring showed the other students’ thinking/idea/opinion. It is entirely possible that the conductors of the survey have the questionnaire among a little part of students, especially their friends, no evidence shows that the student who didn't took part in it are agree with continuing all-female education. Thus, the author could not take this survey as an evidence to strengthen his point of view.

Secondly, the author shows no evidence maintaining all-female education would improve morale among students. There may be many students that prefer coeducation but not surveyed by the student government, if it is the truth, maintaining all-female education would of course have no good of the students’ morale. As the author said that the faculty members voted in favor of coeducation, there should be a lot of people prefer enrolling male students, if the college's strategy could not meet these faculties' asking/claim, it is also possible harmful to the students' morale.

Last but not least, the author unfairly concluded that the college have to be always obedience to what the alumni's saying, thus to maintain the financial supporting of them. But it may not be the case. In the first place, no evidence shows that the so-called more than a half alumni are equal to large proportion of the financial supporting, if the left of the alumni are the most financial supporting from, then there is no need to care about money after the practice of coeducation. Even though after coeducation we may lose a lot of financial supporting of alumni, there are many ways to increase the income, and the fees from the enrollment of male students may be the best way after the coeducation.

In sum, this recommendation is problematic as it stands. To make more persuasive, the author should show more information about the survey that conducted by the student government, and answer the questions such as why the morale could be improved and why the college should have to maintain the financial supporting of alumni.