The nemesis of incoming graduate students, the Graduate Record Examination, was eliminated as a requirement for Fall 2001 political science graduate applicants at a Jan. 12 department meeting. Michael Shapiro, professor of Political Science and proponent of the omission of the GRE for political science graduate applicants, was pleased with the decision. I'm really happy that we finally abolished it. Political science graduate applicants will now be admitted based on three letters of recommendation, a statement of objectives, transcripts and an example of the applicant's work. Peter Garrod, graduate division associate dean and an ally of the GRE, believes that eliminating the test as a requirement will make student and program assessment more difficult.
Transcripts are difficult to evaluate under grade inflation.
Lance Collins, chief justice and student caucus delegate for the Graduate Student Organization, said he has been pushing the abolition of the GRE requirement in Political Science for two years. I don't feel the political science department should be involved in the economics of standardized tests. At UH Manoa, there are 76 graduate programs, and 58 of them require the GRE for admittance, according to Dr. Ray Jarman, assistant dean of the graduate division. A handful of the programs require the GRE only for admittance into the doctoral program, and recommend it for the masters program, he said. Collins and Shapiro both argued that GRE scores reflect how well a student can afford GRE tutelage, rather than how well that student will do in a graduate program.