>However, the whole accusation about CBI dumbing >down their questions is an absolute joke. I read >questions at the regionals for my school as a >favor, and they were pathetic...I don't see how >CBI can possibly dumb them down even more. This is not an "accusation." I have been told flat out by one of the people in charge of HCASC that they did not believe that the HBCUs were "ready for the level of College Bowl Questions," and that they just "needed a few years to catch up." Those are _direct quotes._ I don't know how different the difficulty level of HCASC is from regular CBI, but it's statements like this (not, mind you, necessarily beliefs which are held by everyone at CBI) which make people wonder why the circuits are kept separate. Why are the students at an HBCU any different from students anywhere else? The only answer many can come up with is that a majority of them are African-American, and thus this leads to accusations of racism. (Again, these are not _my_ accusations. But I certainly think there's some shaky ground here for the CBI people.) People out there know that I enjoy playing CBI, and that I tend to get along reasonably with their staff. In fact, I thought this year's Nationals was a quality tournament in almost every way, with mostly excellent questions, given the distribution (which I happen to enjoy, and others don't- whatever), and have posted several places stating this. But on the HCASC issue, I cannot see why HBCUs should be treated any differently than any other school in terms of the opportunities available to them, _especially_ on the particularly offensive (to me) grounds outlined above. Podunk U with a program which is just starting could probably use "a few years to catch up" to the Chicagos and Marylands of the world too, but CBI doesn't go out of their way to do anything for these schools. Why single out HBCUs as "needing time to catch up?" (Note: I have no clear idea on what the official CBI policy is with regard to the reasoning behind the "protection" of HBCUs from the circuit. I am simply repeating what I was told by a member of the organizing committee whom I'm happy to name in private emails, as I have done before.) -MZ
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