An idea whose time has come? Don't ask - don't tell policy at schools that receive federal funding.

[Boojatta]

Before a school decides whether or not to admit an applicant, why not have a "don't ask - don't tell" policy? I mean: the school is forbidden from asking about the student's ancestry and the student must not disclose any information about his or her ancestry.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. You wouldn't need to ask all the kids anyway.

Skin color reveals a lot about ancestry.

[Boojatta]

2. From college application forms, how would people in charge of admission

determine the skin color of an applicant?

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. By asking for a picture

[Boojatta]

4. "Don't ask" means that if they ask for a picture then they lose federal funding.

If it's just an insubordinate or incompetent individual who asks for the picture, then the individual won't continue to be employed by the school.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. I think it's pretty common practice to ask for a picture

Not sure a regulation against it would go through.

I agree with you though. It would be nice to see such a policy in place.

[Igel]

6. Names.

Malik and Keisha tend to say something about possibly ancestries. I've known few non-Latino white kids named Pedro and few blacks named Vicenzo; none, actually.

This idea was widespread in some conservative circles 20 and 30 years ago. Under current law, recipients of federal money must ask students their race.

[Boojatta]

7. The only problem is that the names are short.

Solution: after the name, list various identifying information, such as date of birth, etc.

The goal is to create a long enough block of plaintext. The student applies a public key encryption algorithm to the plaintext. The result is the ciphertext name that the student uses on the application forms.

The student isn't permitted to disclose his or her private key, because such disclosure would violate the "don't tell" policy. However, the student's public key is public information published when the student first submits the application forms. Thus, after schools make their decisions, a student can reveal the block of plaintext and a school that offered to admit the student can confirm that the student's public key does indeed transform the block of plaintext into the ciphertext name. Thus, the student can accept the offer and the school can confirm that the offer was made to that particular student.

[Boojatta]

8. Kick

[Boojatta]

9. Kick