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Management Enrollment Subcommittee Report Admission Requirements (Original draft distributed March 17; Last revised April 18, 2005, 2005) Subcommittee: Admission Requirements Members: Admissions and Records Policy Committee, augmented by members of the Milwaukee Commitment Advisory Panel and other interested students, faculty and staff (see complete roster below). Based on direction from the Steering Committee and supported by data analyses, the subcommittees working on undergraduate retention improvements are focusing their work on strategies to improve the first-year success and retention to the second fall of: New freshmen entering UWM with remedial placements in both English and math New freshmen entering UWM with college-level ACT and placement scores who attain grade point averages of 2.0 or better in their first year New freshmen of color, especially to reduce gaps in success and retention between students of color and white students. Please identify whether the strategies and outcomes you are recommending apply to all first year freshmen and/or to these specific students of focus. Summarize the subcommittee report in the matrix below, followed by a narrative that provides further explanation. Freshmen year goals/outcomes/strategies/resource needs Goals 1) Improve the academic success and retention of new freshmen entering UWM. 2) Reduce the gap in academic success and retention between students of color and white students entering UWM as freshmen. 3) With the above goals in mind, ensure that UWM's undergraduate admissions policy and procedures are aligned with broader institutional goals and available resources. Points of contact/strategies Modify the undergraduate admission policy to: 1. Establish a minimum ACT score of 17 (or equivalent SAT) for standard admission of otherwise qualified applicants; 2. Enable academic units, at their option, to establish a minimum class rank criterion of the top 75 percent for standard admission of otherwise qualified applicants; and 3. Enable academic units, at their option, to expand their "unit guidelines" criteria to include applicants who present both an ACT score of 19 or 20 (or equivalent SAT) and class rank between the 40th and 50th percentile.. 1 Yr 1 (Note: This assumes revised admission criteria have been officially adopted by the end of the 2004-05 academic year, for implementation beginning with fall, 2006. If not, the calendar to be adjusted accordingly.) Develop appropriate internal procedures to ensure smooth implementation of the revised admission criteria. Develop an appropriate communication plan to inform all stakeholders about these changes and, in particular, to ensure that prospective students/parents/counselors are not misinformed or discouraged about the opportunities available to them at UWM. Assess the workload impact of new criteria and procedures and, if necessary, reallocate or seek additional resources as may be appropriate. Yr 2 Yr 3 Implement the new criteria; review procedures and impact; assess effectiveness, in particular as measured by one year retention and academic success Fine-tune procedures as/if necessary; assess impact and effectiveness, in particular as measured by one year retention and academic success 1) Increased first year retention for all students. 2) Increased first year retention and academic success rate for students entering with relatively poor academic preparation (as described above). Note that this group includes a disproportionate number of students of color. 3) Reduced gap between white students and students of color in their retention and success rates. 4) Maintained or increased diversity of the freshman class. 5) Over time, increased diversity of the undergraduate student body; increased six year graduation rates; and number of baccalaureate degrees awarded to students of color. Outcomes and means of assessing Yr 1 Yr 2 Yr 3 Standard retention reports, comparing retention and academic success rates of students admitted under new criteria to that of earlier cohorts. Other reports/analyses as appropriate using information available from the student database. Same 2 Resource needs Specifics unknown as yet. However, these modified admission criteria may result in some increase in workload for both admissions staff and for academic unit staff involved in the admission process. They may also result in an increase in the number of under-prepared students being served by the Academic Opportunity Center. This increase may be offset to some extent by AOC serving fewer "borderline" students. However, if AOC is to remain as the unit with primary responsibility for serving most of the under-prepared students entering UWM, it may be necessary to allocate additional resources to them. Additional Information See following pages. DRAFT Matrix for admission subcommittee reports-2.doc Revised March 22 3 Admissions and Records Policy Committee Update presented March 17, 2005 to the Enrollment Management Steering Committee (Revised March 22, 2005) Current Freshman Admissions Criteria a) Graduation from a recognized high school, or an appropriate equivalent; b) At least 17 appropriate high school units, distributed to include at least 4 units of English; 3 units of math at or above the level of algebra; 3 units of social studies; 3 units of natural science; 2 additional units from the above, foreign language or speech/communication; and 2 additional units from the above or other appropriate areas. c) Rank in the top half of the graduating class OR score at least 21 on the ACT (or equivalent SAT). Charge made to the Admissions and Records Policy Committee Published admission criteria will be reviewed and possibly modified to both limit undergraduate enrollment growth and facilitate improved student preparation for the standard college curriculum. Criteria for students admitted under exception to published admission standards will be reviewed and possibly modified to facilitate increased student retention and graduation. Committee Meetings Meetings have been held on Oct. 5, Nov. 9, Dec. 14, Jan. 18, Feb. 9, Feb. 18, Mar. 11. At the November meeting, members of the Milwaukee Commitment were added to the ARPC meeting invitation, and from December to the present, other interested persons have been invited, primarily from the Admissions and Records Policy subcommittee. Those who have participated in these meetings have included: Diane Amour, Brian Armstrong, Junhong Chen, Kimberly Cosier, Guillermo Cualtle Jr., Andrea Duncan, Bob Ellis, Kim Folstein, Jennifer Gruenewald, Anthony Hightower, Bruce Horner, Todd Johnson, Sharon Kaempfer, YiChing Kao, Bridgett Kemp, Gwat-Yong Lie, Maureen Mahoney, Amy McNallie, Janice Miller, Pa Moua, Laurie Petersen, Ruth Russell, Carol Seery, Dianne Sinnwell, Gregory Thomas, William Velez, Patricia Villarreal, Gwyn Wallander, Beth Weckmueller, Gary Williams. Summation of Issues and Considerations 1) The possible need to limit the size of the incoming freshman class after several years of significant growth. 2) The historical reputation of UWM as an institution of access and opportunity. 4 3) The concern that a number of students that UWM currently considers "regularly admissible" show evidence of quite low levels of academic preparedness, as measured by both standardized test scores and placement test results. 4) Many individuals admitted with low levels of academic preparation do not, at present, succeed academically at UWM. Some individuals do, but at present we don't know what factors explain who will succeed and who won't. 5) Many freshman applicants are quite well prepared academically, and this group includes a significant proportion of students of color. However, we do not succeed in enrolling a high percentage of these applicants, be they white or of color. 6) UWM's retention and graduation rates are not as high overall as we would like, and there is a significant gap between the rates for white students and students of color. We would very much like to close this gap. 7) We wish to avoid changes making to our admission criteria that will have a disproportionately negative impact on students of color. 8) We wish to make changes which will enable us to be more effective in helping a greater percentage of our students be successful, remain enrolled and, ultimately, graduate. Proposed Modifications to the Current Criteria At its meetings of February 18 and March 11, 2005, the UWM Admissions and Records Policy Committee voted approval of three modifications to our freshman admission policies and procedures, which will be described below. These recommendations were shared, in draft form, with the Enrollment Management Steering Committee and discussed at that group's April 1 meeting. During the course of that discussion it became evident that the recommendations as worded were causing some confusion. It was therefore suggested that the ARPC revisit the recommendations and perhaps "tweak" the wording for greater clarity, and this occurred at a meeting of the ARPC on April 8, 2005. The recommendations below reflect this reconsideration and some minor revision. RECOMMENDATIONS [Items in brackets are explanatory.] 1) Establish a minimum ACT score of 17 (or equivalent SAT) for standard admission of otherwise qualified applicants. [Applicants with lower scores may still be considered, but will be reviewed on an individual basis for discretionary admission.] 2) Enable academic units, at their option, to establish a minimum class rank criterion from the top 75 percent for standard admission of otherwise qualified applicants. [Applicants from the bottom quartile may still be considered and reviewed on an individual basis for discretionary admission.] 3) Enable academic units, at their option, to expand their "unit guidelines" criteria to include applicants who present both an ACT score of 19 or 20 (or equivalent SAT) and class rank between the 40th and 50th percentile. [This would permit academic units, if desired, to direct DES to admit these students on their behalf.] 5 Rationale for and additional information regarding the proposed changes 1. Minimum ACT (17) for standard admission Rationale: Our current requirements do not include any minimum ACT score as a "floor." Thus, even students presenting very low scores may be considered regularly admissible, with no additional assessment or special support offered, if they are otherwise qualified in terms of their high school coursework and class rank. Our retention data indicate that students entering UWM with very low ACT scores (here described as at or below 16) have very low retention and graduation rates. It can be argued that UWM is doing these students a disservice by admitting them without providing the academic support they may need in order to be successful. One option would be for UWM to not admit these students at all. However we wish to maintain UWM's traditional role of providing access and opportunity, particularly to students from our local community. We also know that some students presenting low scores on standardized tests ultimately do quite well, so we do not want to exclude otherwise qualified applicants on that basis alone. Therefore, we arrived at this compromise position: Otherwise qualified applicants with ACT scores below 17 may still be admissible, but on a contingent basis. Additional assessment will be done to help determine the student's level of academic preparation. Depending on the results of this assessment, the applicant may be offered admission to the desired school/college or (a more likely outcome) via AOC, with appropriate course/credit limits and extra academic support provided as may be appropriate. Likely impact/Impact on diversity: We expect that most of these students will be served by AOC. A disproportionate number of these low scorers are from underrepresented groups and attend city schools. With proper intervention and additional academic support, we expect their retention and academic success rates to improve. Additional considerations: Academic advisors and representatives from the school/college student support services units are very supportive of this change, as are representatives from our Student Accessibility Center and AOC. One challenge, however, will be to communicate this change in a manner that does not discourage individuals with low test scores from applying. We will need to choose our words carefully in publications which reference our admission criteria. 2. Discretionary (rather than standard ) admission of bottom quartile students Rationale: In recent years, 5%-7% of new freshmen admits have been from the bottom quartile of the high school class. Many of these students come in via AOC, but some are regularly admissible. Some schools/colleges would prefer not to routinely admit bottom quartile students. This change will allow each of the schools/colleges to determine the most appropriate approach for their unit. If the unit opts not to have us continue to admit these applicants directly, they will be referred to our admissions review process for further assessment and individual consideration. Likely impact/Diversity impact: Unknown at this point, as it will depend on how many of the schools/colleges opt not to continue admitting these students routinely. Students of color comprise only a small percentage of this group. Since the numbers are small, we do not foresee any major impact. This is primarily a procedural change. Additional considerations: As with the other changes described here, we will need to carefully consider how to present this in our published admission criteria. We do not want to discourage 6 these individuals from applying, yet we do not want to continue to give the impression that poor high school performance can be easily offset by a standardized test score. (This is why many high school counselors favor this change, believing it may provide additional motivation for some students to "apply themselves" more diligently in high school.) 3. Admission of applicants with ACT of 19-20 AND rank between 40%-50% Rationale: Our retention and academic success data suggest that many students with ACTs in this range perform as well at UWM as students with somewhat higher scores. However, for reasons of capacity limits as well as perceived institutional quality, we do not wish to lower our admission standards. Thus, we are proposing this change, which would allow the academic units, at their option, to accommodate applicants with "borderline" test scores who are also very close to upper half class rank. If they wish to continue to review these applicants on an individual basis they may, but if they prefer, they may opt to have Enrollment Services admit them directly as we do now with other "unit guidelines" students. Likely impact/Impact on diversity: If some of the academic units opt to have DES admit these students directly, fewer such students will need to be served by AOC. This will allow AOC to concentrate more of their resources on students who are more likely to be in greater need of additional academic support. A significant proportion of the students presenting this profile are from underrepresented groups. This change may enable us to expedite the admission decision and enroll a higher percentage of these applicants. Additional considerations: Like #2 above, this change would be implemented on an optional basis only by the academic units which wish to do so. Since it is more procedural in nature, this modification will likely operate "in the background" and not be listed as part of our published admissions criteria. We may also wish to develop appropriate alternate gpa criteria to accommodate applicants from high schools which do not rank. In sum, we believe that three modifications described above will help improve student retention and academic success, while maintaining UWM's traditional role as a public institution providing access and opportunity, particularly to students from our local community. Matrix + supporting info for EM admission subcom rept revised April 18.doc Last Revised April 18, 2005 7

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