Gros Louis told to 'enhance' admissions

In delaying the chancellor's search process, IU President Adam Herbert has charged interim chancellor Ken Gros Louis with the task of "enhancing admissions requirements" for freshmen at IU.\nGros Louis, who also serves as senior vice president for academic affairs, said he will work on a plan to increase the level of expected excellence that judges applicants on their grade point average, class rank, SAT scores and other standard admissions criteria while he is still in office.\n"We will continue developing a plan with available information to continue this process," Gros Louis said. "Work on this will be done up until I leave office, and I hope it will be carried on by the next chancellor."\nIU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said Herbert has spoken of raising admissions standards, due to improvements in the quality of applicants. \n"Admission standards are going to go up at IU simply because the tests scores of the high school student population that aspires to go to IU are rising," MacIntyre said. "That's a trend that will probably continue."\nGros Louis sets up his own Chancellor's Enrollment Committee, which makes recommendations to him about suggested policy changes. He, in turn, makes recommendations to the Bloomington Faculty Council, who advises Herbert and the board of trustees, who make the ultimate decision. \nHe said he believes raising admissions standards would improve the quality of the freshman profile.\n"The freshman class profile is a fairly large component of many rankings, and an improved profile could improve Bloomington's rankings," Gros Louis said. "I think they do need to be raised, because many faculty are concerned about the issue."\nBut the board of trustees has been presented with a plan for a more drastic change under the recommendation of the Higher Education Subcommittee of the Government Efficiency Commission of Indiana to establish IU as a more elite, research-focused University.\nThe Higher Education Subcommittee proposed that IU-Bloomington seek to transform itself more along the lines of University of Michigan and University of California-Berkeley, MacIntyre said. This change would promote a heavier focus on graduate students and research.\n"I think that one thing that may have gotten lost in this whole discussion is that this is already a research campus," said Charlie Nelms, vice president for institutional development and student affairs. "I don't see a research university as being at odds with being an excellent place for student learning."\nNelms cited IU's membership to the Association of American Universities as evidence that IU has already established itself as a research university. \n"As a public flagship university of the state of Indiana, it seems to me quite appropriate that there be some adjustments in the admissions standards," Nelms said. "But in doing so, we need to balance some things."\nHe said he believes that IUB needs to work to attract the most excellent and well-prepared students but still provide opportunities for the greatest number of students in Indiana as possible, including those who might not have decided to go to college until late into their high school careers.\n"(Herbert) does want IU to become somewhat more selective, but he has never set a standard along the lines of what was recommended by the Higher Education Subcommittee," MacIntyre said.\nTed Miller, president of the Bloomington Faculty Council, said the recommendations by the Higher Education Subcommittee are not under serious consideration right now but could represent the image of the future Bloomington campus. Miller said they are more seriously discussing what he sees as more of a movement to uphold the standards that they have already set rather than raise them.\n"The problem that we have in Bloomington is not so much that our admissions policy is too low," Miller said. "It's just that, in terms of actually admitting students, we are not actually following that policy."\nThe Bloomington Faculty Council is working under a report put out by the Mission Differentiation Project team titled "Eight Campuses, One Shared Destiny." This report stated that each IU campus should have its own separate admissions standards. Miller said the changes, which are being discussed and are expected to be decided on around February, will impose a stricter upholding of the standards that have already been put forth.\n"The current policy says that students admitted to IU should have an SAT score that is higher than the median score of all Indiana students who take the SAT," Miller said. "If you look at the SAT profile, roughly 25 percent of the students we admit to Bloomington do not meet that standard."\nMiller said any changes made will not affect students for several years, because they will involve selection of high school courses, which some students begin planning as early as the seventh grade. He said the Bloomington Faculty Council is trying to align the timing of any changes with the recent legislation passed that set a minimum requirement of a Core 40 diploma for any high school graduate wishing to attend a four-year state university.