List off the reasons why people should boycott Kaplan:

1. They snubbed the wiki.

This seems really childish and reactionary to me. (aside from #3, which I think everyone can agree is annoying!) —PhilipNeustrom

  • I talked to the head of Davis Kaplan about it. The wiki wasn't even a nominee. I guess the just didn't understand what the wiki was or they just wanted to give it to students who had the intelligence to form a group just to have something about it on their resume. the Building Roles guys each won three awards that night. I'll forward you the email that I sent to Rosanne of SPAC and Nan of Kaplan. If the Imani clinic which gives out free medicine to people in Oak Park or the Shifa Clinic would have won i would have no problem. But my real anger is who Kaplan feels is the noblest and most righteous organization. And that is a reason to boycott them. -RobRoy
    • What do you mean not a nominee? You mean it didn't qualify in the first place?
      • No, you qualified. But the wiki wasn't even in the top 20 contenders. Picnic Day was though.
      • What boggles my mind is—why not? This Wiki is the MOST collaborative project Davis has ever seen. It brings together such diverse groups, and does a lot to make Davis more accessible and livable. And that's not to mention how it opens up lines of communication that previously did not exist. I have a strong suspicion that the evaluating committee failed to make its assessments on the bases that it claimed in advertising the contest. It also calls into question whether they followed California Business and Professions Code sections 17539-17539.3, 17539.35, if applicable. -jr
      • How were we not in the top 20 contenders?? Did they even bother to check out the website? It sounds as if they didn't do much research into anything they didn't immediately recognize. I smell a rat. —KalenRidenour

2. Some allege that they teach rich kids how to cheat, although several former Kaplan students dispute that there is anything that is technically cheating. These people, after all, want to compete fair and square, right?

  • Could someone flesh out the details of the accusation? I always heard that Kaplan and Princeton Review (and whatnot) were socially bad because in the course of proving they could "teach to the test" and raise people scores, over the years proliferation test-prep has been causing scores to rise, while those for whom test-prep is inaccessible get left in the dust. So my question is whether "cheating" is used figuratively above, speaking to the way test-prep cheats the objectivity assessment system? -jr
  • I took the MCAT prep course that Kaplan offers. I'm not proud of admitting it, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. They didn't teach me how to cheat, and, if they had tried, I would have reported them to the AAMC. Everyone takes the MCAT seriously, even Kaplan. I do agree with the sentiment that they leave the less fortunate out of the loop. If I hadn't been able to afford the class, I don't think I would have done as well on the exam. That's just me, though. —NiareeHopelian
    • Okay, so perhaps whoever made the comment was just referring to how test prep reinforces classism. —jr

3. Students have observed thousands of Kaplan's flyers that have been placed on campus boards, which violates SPAC policy and harms the forests. In addition, they do not seem to have an issue with putting up an excessive amount of flyers on a single board by covering up the flyers for real student organizations and events.

  • If I'm not mistaken, since Kaplan isn't a student organization, shouldn't it be outside the oversight of SPAC? I think there is a broader campus policy to govern commercial advertising... which Kaplan also likely violates. Any thoughts?
    • It is under the oversight of SPAC, because that's the most convenient place for the University to put it. (source)
  • In what way does this harm the forests?
  • This shouldn't be an issue anymore, as the boss lady is pretty strict about following SPAC policy... must have been someone from a long time ago... 
COMMERICAL ADVERTISING 


DISTRIBUTION


University regulations prohibit the distribution of commercial advertisements on campus.


POSTING POLICY


Posting of one commercial advertisement per event/activity per University bulletin board is permitted.


(size limit 8 1/2” x 11”). Posting of commercial advertising on department, individual faculty member,


classroom notice, and Student Housing bulletin boards is not permitted.
  • Yeah, well, I'm still not sure if that's a SPAC rule or SPAC's rearticulation of a university policy found elsewhere. After all, how is SPAC going to fine Kaplan? Shut off their SPAC mailbox? Freeze their SPAC recharge account? Oh wait, they don't have one.
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