Monday, August 31, 2009
Last Tuesday, Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson suggested changing admission standards for Kansas universities, beginning what he called “a necessary conversation” about higher education. At the Board of Regents meeting, he discussed changing standards as part of a 10-year plan to improve the national rankings of Kansas’ three “national unitiversities”: the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Wichita State University.
“These are things that needed to be talked about that weren’t being talked about,” Parkinson said.
Admission requirements according to the University Office of Admissions and Scholarships. Kansas residents who graduate from accredited Kansas high schools will be admitted to the University if they: — finished in the top third of their class, or — finished a curriculum set by the Regents, with a grade point average of 2.0, or — scored 21 or above on the ACT or 980 or above on the SAT. Out-of-state students will be admitted to the University if they: — finished in the top third of their class, or — finished a curriculum recognized by the Regents with a grade point average of 2.5, or — scored 24 or above on the ACT or 1090 or above on the SAT.
Currently, US News and World Report ranks the University as 96th out of 260 universities. Kansas State was ranked in a tier between 134th through 196th, and Wichita State in a tier between 197th and 260th.
Parkinson said the success of state universities was vital.
“It’s very important to me,” Parkinson said. “The state cannot succeed if the Regents institutions don’t succeed.”
Regents can now set standards
Last year, University of Kansas administrators called some of the current admission requirements “outdated” when commenting to a task force formed by the Regents on admission policies.
“The current policy puts Kansas at a competitive and operational disadvantage,” administrators said in the report. “We are required to admit students to KU whom we know will likely fail.”
Lynn Bretz, director of University Communications, said the current system was not encouraging students to be prepared for the rigors of a college education.
“When you have a system that has a very low bar, that’s not being very honest to students,” Bretz said.
A law was changed in March to give the Regents the control to change university admission standards.
The governor reminded the Regents on Tuesday they had this power.
“I’m pleased that you now have additional flexibility with respect to admissions and I encourage you to use it,” Parkinson said in his speech.
Second task force to form
The Regents said they would form another task force to look at admissions standards.
Parkinson told the Regents that not every university had to have the same admissions standards. He posed the hypothetical that Wichita State could be the state’s open admission school while another school could have tougher standards.
Parkinson said the state should take advantage of the full system of secondary education, including community colleges, to better serve taxpayers.
“We do have to have some schools available essentially for all Kansas graduates,” Parkinson said. “They shouldn’t be able to send every graduate to every school. It’s unfair to the student if we end up putting them in a school that doesn’t meet their individual needs.”
Kip Peterson, director of government relations and communications for the Regents, said Gary Sherrer, vice chair of the Regents, would serve as chairman for the second task force. Sherrer was also chairman of the first task force. Peterson said the task force, which has not yet been formed, would go to different parts of the state to hear different proposals for changes in admissions policies.
“They want to do this with the whole state in mind,” Peterson said. “They’re going to look at everything.”
Bretz said the University planned on taking enrollment proposals to the Board of Regents this fall, but she said they had not been completed yet.
Mason Heilman, Lawrence senior and student body president, said he would like to see student representation on an assessment of admissions standards.
“No one really has a really a better feel for what admission standards are than people who just got done going through that process,” Heilman said.
Any changes made by the Regents would not go into effect for another four years to allow schools and students time to adjust.
In the meantime, Bretz applauded Parkinson.
“It’s terrific when you have a governor who is concerned about student performance how a state can raise its academic performance,” Bretz said. “We’re glad he’s focusing on academic issues.”
— — Edited by Brenna M. T. Daldorph
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Comments
Future admission requirements may change
I am so pleased to see that the state is taking our low admissions standards more seriously. While I personally believe that students who meet the low admissions standards eventually drop out, raising the admissions standards will increase the value of our degrees by making it look like more intelligent students are receiving degrees from KU than in the past. My hope is that the new chancellor, provost and other administration officials will vigorously pursue this as a top priority. I agree that cancer research and other pursuits by the last administration are important for the community and to the value of degrees and should be continued, however, I believe that University officials should be doing more to directly aid the students of this University in their degree and post-degree seeking efforts than has been done in the last several years.
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