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The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

Letters to the Editor

Yes, we do still need the SAT

Eliminating the SAT is not the problem-solver for less privileged students (“Do we still need the SAT?” April 20, p. 4). In fact, less privileged students can and often do score higher than those coming from elite private schools, prep schools and boarding schools. Suggesting that removing the SAT, an objective indicator of student collegiate performance, will somehow magically increase diversity applicants is not true. In fact, one could point to the “diversity” of these schools mentioned in the article and see that there has been no fix in the diversity of their applicant pools.

What needs to be corrected is the ways schools manage their curriculum and marshal resources to manage student performance. Should all schools teach towards the SAT? No. But should public schools in lower-income areas adopt after-school programs and free test-prep options? Yes. Top Test Prep is trying to implement free test prep boot camps for low-income school districts like Washington D.C., particularly for students without the resources to afford traditional tutoring.

While I applaud your column for its topic and the need to debate the SAT’s merits, less privileged students should not be insulted by eliminating an exam on which, intellectually, they have the power to succeed.
Ross Blankenship, President and Admissions Expert, Top Test Prep

Keep marijuana illegal

Although Justin Guiffre’s column (“Put the poor before pot” April 20, p. 4) on marijuana made some interesting points, it did not address the deadlier problems that would surround marijuana legalization. According to a 1994 report in the New England Journal of Medicine titled “Testing Reckless Drivers for Cocaine and Marijuana,” 33 percent of reckless drivers who were tested for drugs were high on marijuana.

Could you imagine what would happen on our roads if marijuana use became acceptable and legal in this country? Could you imagine how many more reckless drivers would get behind the wheel high and endanger their own and other people’s life if marijuana became legal?

Additionally, although most major scientific research bodies agree that there is not yet enough research on the subject to make them happy, many have sponsored or published reports showing how marijuana smoking increases the risk for cancer, causes respiratory harm and otherwise hurts individual health. In a country that is already dealing with a major health care crisis, why must we add yet another burden to our nation’s health system? When we are trying to scale back tobacco use for these exact reasons, why must we introduce another smoked carcinogen to the legal market?

Although I do appreciate finally seeing a column defending the criminal status of marijuana, I think that it would be better to focus on the truly deadly effects of marijuana to get the message across that marijuana legalization would be bad.
Daniel Wessel, Senior

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