Tuesday, September 1, 2009
The Kansas Board of Regents should raise admission standards for incoming freshmen at the University to benefit all students. Raising admission standards would help to eventually raise national rankings as well as ensure that new students are fully prepared to enter collegiate academia.
Gaining admission to the University is not seen as an achievement in the eyes of incoming students, but instead as a fallback choice.
Even so, 20 percent of the freshman class drops out by the end of first semester. The parallel is clear: It is easy to get in, easy to drop out. Retention is key to raising graduation rates. And raising graduation rates is key to higher rankings among other public universities in the nation.
According to Marlesa Roney, vice provost for student success, 90 percent of students at the University are admitted to receive a degree. Out of this percentage of degree-seeking students, far less actually make it to graduation. The problem lies with incoming students who are not fully prepared for college academic standards
Students who achieve just one of the University’s admission standards can simply coast through the rest of their high school career, and right into the fall semester. These requirements are an ACT score of 21 or higher, rank in the top third of graduating class or a 2.0 GPA in the Qualified Admissions pre-college curriculum.
“I think they need to be changed,” Roney said of admission standards. “I believe that it is important for students in Kansas to have a better understanding of what it takes to be successful.”
However, an important distinction needs to be made between having higher rankings as a goal or as a result. Changing admission standards with students as the first priority will eventually result in higher rankings for the University, but the benefits for students along the way are endless.
“When we admit students we are making a judgment that they can succeed,” Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said in a speech on May 30. “And, I think the process of admission is one in which we want to be deliberative, in which we look at students, at their preparation.”
Roney agrees that changing admission standards is not to be taken lightly. She said that any changes would have to “assess students’ willingness to work hard” and “readiness to be in a college environment.”
The Kansan agrees with Roney — that judging a student’s ability to succeed is “not a college test score, but more or less a concept of academic maturity.”
In 1996, according to kansasregents.org, Kansas changed its admission standards from an open policy to a qualified one. This means that just more than a decade has passed since Kansas has had any sort of admissions criteria for incoming students.
Roney said another pivotal change was made during the spring semester. Previously, the state required legislative action to change any admission standards at public state universities. Now, admission requirement changes have been delegated to the Kansas Board of Regents. A task force has been set up to assess the effectiveness of current standards and to propose changes for the benefit of the University and students.
However, there is no quick fix in the business of changing admission requirements. Any changes approved by the Board of Regents cannot go into effect for four years to give high school students time to adjust to the new qualifications.
Students need to be prepared to face a new challenge in coming to college. The University is foremost an academic institution concerned with student success in life after graduation. Admission requirements should be raised as a way to prepare incoming students, and to look forward to higher national rankings in the future.
— — Kara Walker for the Kansan Editorial Board
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