Admission Requirements to be raised for 2005
Effective Fall 2005, the admission requirements for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette will once again be raised.
Currently, the requirements for admission are a minimum ACT score of 18 and a 2.3 GPA. The new criteria demands a minimum 23 ACT score or a 2.5 GPA or a rank in the top 25 percent of the student’s high school graduating class.
The new Master Plan for Higher Education is being mandated by the Board of Regents and requires all universities within the state to adopt new standards. LSU leads the changes with the most dramatic jump to a 25 ACT score, along with other GPA options. Louisiana, UNO and Louisiana Tech will all adopt the same standards.
The changes aim to increase the retention of students who will finish their education by improving the quality of incoming students.
Had these changes occurred this semester, 17.9 percent, one of every five students, of the incoming class would have been denied admission.
President Ray Authement commented on the changes.
“If the requirements had been in effect this fall semester, nearly 600 students would have been denied admission to the university,” Authement said. “The loss of 600 equates to a loss of approximately $1,400,000 in tuition income. A minimum decline in state support can be expected, also.”
The state support Authement referred to is a $3,031,598 federal bail out the university received this year but does not expect to receive again. Through these two changes, the university stands to lose $4,463,198 according to the Louisiana 2003-2004 Budget Meeting.
A number of potential issues are raised by the loss of freshmen and transfer-student enrollment: a loss of available classes, student body diversity and financial cutbacks that may result from a loss of tuition.
During a budget meeting with department heads, Authement laid out the impact the changes could have with a possible reduction of 4,800 class enrollments or 160 sections.
David Berry, dean of liberal arts, said the loss of classes could be minimized by holding classes at their regular sizes instead of the oversized classes, which have been used to meet the recent enrollment demand.
“A large number of service- or entry-level classes for freshmen are being taught by graduate students or temporary adjunct professors and faculty so that if those numbers were being reduced much of that reduction would be absorbed through a reduction in the use of temporary or adjunct faculty,” Berry said.
Communication Department Head Michael Maher said the last time the university implemented selective admissions there was concern about affecting the minority enrollment.
“My concern, right now, is a kind of diversity issue, we’ve got a diversity committee here, and my first charge to them will be to look into it,” Maher said.
Nationwide, according to Fairtest.org, a Web site devoted to standardized test, minorities usually score less on standardized tests. It reported that whites average a 21.7, Asian-Americans score 21.6, Hispanics score 18.2, and blacks score 16.8. Statewide, Louisiana has a 19.6 ACT score, nearly three and a half points lower than the 2005 minimum.
One reason the changes are now occurring is because Louisiana finally has a community college system that can handle the numbers of students who might be denied admission to a four-year university, and this also helps to expand community college enrollments, which rose 11 percent last year alone, while four-year universities rose by just over two percent.
Maher said that the president believes everyone deserved a shot at higher education and he believes one of the reasons selective admissions did not go through faster was because there was a lack of the community college system such that if you did not meet the requirements you could at least attend a community college. Louisiana Registrar DeWayne Bowie said he agrees with the changes but said he felt that a community college system was essential for the changes to go through.
“We now have the community college system in place, and I know we were waiting for that to be in place before we went to a selective admissions, that was one of Dr. Authement’s biggest concerns, we didn’t want to go to a very selective institution when students didn’t have other options, and now the community colleges are there.”
Bowie also said the university is establishing a relationship with community colleges to ensure that students can easily transfer after attending. He said his main concern is that students seeking higher education have higher quality options. He said it was important that students who attend a community college have a support mechanism that ensures the students who transfer can be as successful as other students.
According to Fairtest.org, the ACT is a hot issue with many who believe it unfairly discriminates against ethnicity, income and those who perform poorly on standardized tests in general.
For this reason the university has other options available, like the 2.5 GPA and the top 25 percent requirement. Another option, admission by exception, allows the university to accept as 15 percent of previously ineligble students for its incoming; 10 percent is allotted for meeting minority requirements.
Berry, a member of the Admission By Exceptions Committee, said research shows the best indicator for success is not the ACT but the student’s high school GPA.
“We are discovering more and more that one measure is not a sure prediction of how much success a student will have in college; that is you cannot use ACT as a complete predictor for success in college,” Berry said. “So, I think the various options that are provided give students some flexibility and then allows for differences in learning that they may have in test taking. So, it gives a better picture of what type of person can really succeed.”
Dean of Enrollment Services Dan Rosenfield also sits on the committee.
“My feeling is that we have given a lot of students a chance through that committee,” Rosenfield said.
“What we don’t want to do is offer access to people who are doomed to failure.
“Very often we sit there and say that this is a person who needs to be in the community college, this is someone for who the community colleges were established, someone who needs some developmental work, someone who needs to make up some lost ground before they will be ready to come to this school and succeed.”
Berry said he believes that everyone should be given the chance to pursue a higher education but feels that the changes were for the right reasons.
He said he believes that although the changes would result in a loss at first for the university, the enrollment would pick up in a couple of years.
“I think high school students try to reach to the level they need to get in order to go to school where they want to,” Berry said.
“I think we can anticipate some increase or bettering of GPA and ACT scores of incoming students because they’ll know that the standard is out there.”
Berry used an analogy to express his feelings over the issue.
“As the water rises, then the boat rises, and if students get into the boat their education and what they get from their education is going to be better,” Berry said.
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