argument174 女校还是男校

xmbjowlUID: 2182375

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: 463          TIME: 上午 12:30:00          DATE: 2006-7-16

In this argument, the president and administrative staff recommend that the tradition of all-female education in Grove College should be preserved. To support their assertion, two surveys indicating the seemingly objections toward coeducation were listed in order to substantiate the assertion. Unfortunately, neither one is sound enough to convince us.

To begin with, the first survey cited in the argument is statistically unreliable. Neither the size nor the manner of sampling does not been provided. Is the size large enough? Or is the representative of the students chose in the survey sufficient enough? Also, it is entirely possible that the group of students who oppose the fashion of coeducation is more willing to response the survey, to claim their objection. Or maybe the student government support all-female manner on campus, thus the questions involved in the survey are misleading. Or perhaps some students are not in our college, thereby they cannot even provide the objective judge toward the status in quo. In a word, without rendering all the relevant information mentioned above, the authenticity as well as the reliability of the first survey among students is open to doubt.

Granted that the reliability of the survey mentioned, the second survey targeted at the alumni commits several fallacies which undermine the assertion of the president. Again, the authenticity and reliability of the survey is open to doubt, since no evidence indicating the size and the representative of the survey is provided. Even assuming the efficacy of the survey, I also doubt that whether the demonstration of the alumni concerning the manner of organizing the college should be taken into consideration, since they may have graduated from the Grove College for decades, the current condition in the college, as well as the education prevailing trend throughout the country may be unfamiliar to them. If so, they make the judge just out of their willing to preserve the tradition, which recalls their campus life. Based on this idea, the answers of the alumni are obviously unconvincing, thus lend little credence to the suggestion.

Last but not least, the conclusion drawn from the two above-mentioned surveys commits a series of fallacies, by which I cannot be convinced. Given that the effectiveness of the two cited survey, I cannot be convinced that the morale of students, as well as the financial supports from the alumni could be guaranteed just because of the preservation. On the one hand, the morale among students is determined by a combination of factors, such as the academic environment on campus, the quality of the faculty, and the equipment of laboratory. On the other, lots of reasons other than the preservation of all-female education are responsible for the financial supporting from the alumni, such as the relevant campaign aimed at funds collection from the alumni, which revokes their golden times on campus, and the pure emotion and strong willing to promote the development of the Alma Mater. Considering all the other possible factors, they may continue supporting the school despite their disapproval of the proposal of altering the tradition. Thus, the causality hidden in the conclusion is unsounded as it stands.

In sum, the recommendation relies on certain doubtful evidence that render it unconvincing as it stands. To bolster the recommendation, the president must provide clear evidence---perhaps by way of all-round study and comparison---that the preservation of the all-female education do in fact own its irreplaceable advantages overweighing the drawbacks, compared to the coeducation. To better assess the recommendation, the essential reasons why the alumni support the college financially should be further investigated.

[ 本帖最后由 xmbjowl 于 2006-7-16 13:05 编辑 ]

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标题格式不对，请修改。

xmbjowlUID: 2182375

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xmbjowlUID: 2182375

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xmbjowlUID: 2182375

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