Present:
Bob Szafran, Chair
Piero Fenci
Doyle Alexander
Roger Bilow
DawnElla Rust
Florence Elliot-Howard
Pat Spence
Lauren Scharff
Absent:
Florence Elliot-Howard
Mike Legg
Marty Turnage
I. Old Business
A.Committee Chair, Bob Szafran, briefly reported items discussed in theAdmissions Requirements Forum held Thursday, April 22, in theRegents' Suite A.
B. Bobdescribed how the committee would process the handling of the facultyand student survey.
C. Boboutlined an order of events for the remainder of committee meetings.The next meeting will be devoted to formulating decisions regardingissues discussed from previous weeks. Final voting on issues will beduring exam week, Thursday, May 13. After final vote on issues, Bobwill formulate areport to present to the committee for feedback. Then, Dr. Ashley will be presented the report.
II. New Business
A. Bobdistributed a chart showing the success rates (% with GPA's of 2.00or better after two semesters and % returning to SFA for a secondyear) of 6,062 beginning first-year students by high school quartilesand SAT categories. Observations included:
1. SATis not as good of a predictor of student success as high school classrank
2. Thisstudy provides a basis for changing admissions requirements based onfactual information
Bob also distributed a chart showing thefall 1998 SFA undergraduate enrollment by classification (freshman,sophomore, etc.) and by type of initial admission to SFA (asbeginning freshman, as transfer student, by other admissionsprocedures). Observations included
1. About4% of the undergraduate enrollment was admitted through otheradmissions procedures.
2.Transfer admissions represent about one-third of our undergraduateenrollment. They represent about half of the senior class.
Bob also distributed a set of threeprojections of SFA enrollments under three different sets of enteringfreshman enrollments. These projections assumed transfer and otheradmissions procedures were unchanged and that no steps were taken bythe university to increase recruitment of students meeting the newadmission requirements. In other words, these were "worst casescenario" projections.
Usingthese students as a test case, severalscenarios regarding possible changes in the admissions requirementswere calculated using SAT scores, high school quartiles along withretention rates of these students. Observations included:
1. Scenarios show, in light of raising admissions requirements, thedecrease in first-time freshmen enrollment, would be minimal overalland the 4th quartile students would be most affected by thechange
2.Analysis of pervious figures shows that students in the 4th quartilehave a rare chance of succeeding
3.Transfer enrollment numbers could increase if admissions requirementswere raised. Students not meeting first-time freshmen requirementsmay choose to start at a junior colleges and transfer to SFA
4.Consideration for changing admissions requirements could includeimplementation of a review process as part of the requirements. Thisprocess added would assist in the transition of the change
5. Anoverall University effort and support should accompany admissionsrequirements changes
B. Thecommittee discussed the positioning of SFA, regarding its rank amongfour-year public institutions in Texas. Basically, SFA is a regionalinstitution serving the East Texas region with the exception of twomajor metropolitan areas, Dallas and Houston.
C. Assuming some changes will be made in the admissions requirements,the committee discussed particular items for review, and out ofthose, items to consider. Some of these included:
1.Students submitting recommendation letters
2. Allstudents ineligible for admissions be referred to a reviewprocess
3. Inthe review process, look at certain characteristics in students suchas their curriculum in high school, clubs, organizations, familylife, work, etc.
4.Possibly interview students in review process
D. As aconsideration of changing high school courses required for admissionsto SFA, instead of recommended, Roger will pull 100 files ofapplicants for Fall 99 to see how many students already meet therecommended courses, and report to the committee the findings in thenext meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:30a.m.