Faculty group proposes plan to raise standards

The Bloomington Faculty Council met in Ballantine Hall on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the first draft of a plan to raise the admissions standards for prospective freshmen of 2011.\nSuggestions for the changes had ranged from working to establish IU-Bloomington as an "elitist" University to not making any changes at all, but the draft proposed by the Educational Policies Committee of the BFC involved an increase in required college preparation classes and recommended class rank and SAT scores.\n"There is a range of views about how selective or elitist (the Bloomington campus) should become," said IU President Adam Herbert during a question-and-answer session at the meeting. "My belief is that if we can be somewhere close to the mean of the Big Ten, then that's not bad."\nA move toward the mean in terms of SAT scores would be a significant increase. This year's freshman class scored the lowest median out of any Big Ten school, a 1049, according to an Oct. 5, 2005, Indiana Daily Student article. \n"(Members of the committee) do not want us to remain dead last in the Big Ten in the quality of our student profile," Herbert said. "I think most of us would agree."\nBut Spanish and \nPortuguese professor Luis Davila said the increased SAT standards, along with a possible de-emphasis on class rank, could hurt IU-Bloomington's goal of increasing diversity. He pointed out that SAT scores and GPAs are on average lower in inner-city public schools.\n"That works against, ultimately, the disadvantaged," he said.\nOther members of the BFC expressed their concerns about increasing the importance of SAT scores, saying the scores are not always the best indicator of a student's future academic performance. If passed, the new admissions standards would aim to raise the SAT scores of the students in the 25th percentile of the profile by 50 points.\n"I think that talking about the SAT scores has been a good thing," said BFC President Ted Miller. "They're going to be taking them more seriously."\nThe proposed plan puts a greater emphasis on college preparation classes for admissions, changing the requirement from 28 to 33 credits. If passed, students would have to take seven credits of math instead of six, including one credit of pre-calculus. The number of required social science credits would increase from four to six and lab science credits would increase from two to four credits. The current admissions standards recommend four credits of world languages, while the BFC is proposing it as a requirement. The remaining credits would be more flexible, as long as they qualified as preparatory courses.\nEducational Policies Committee Co-Chairman William Wheeler said the requirement upgrade would make the student profile of IU-Bloomington comparable to that of a "top 30 university."\nJohn Carini, co-chairman of the Educational Policies Committee, told the council that the committee had considered increasing the standards, but decided the various divisions, such as the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Music that require separate admissions applications, do that job themselves.\n"Most of our students are coming in with this level of preparation or above," he said. "I don't think we're asking too much."\nThe draft of the new admissions standards also calls for an upgrade in the minimum of graduating class rank. If passed, preference will be given to Indiana residents who graduated in the top 45th percentile of their class. The current standard gives preference to students graduating in the top 50 percentile. The out-of-state standard, however, would actually be lowered. Wheeler said the University is not currently meeting the admissions standards it sets for out-of-state residents.\nDespite the proposed increase, Wheeler said class rank is becoming more and more obsolete because it is so dependent on what high school the student attended. He said 35 percent of high schools no longer even report it.\n"I think we're learning that class rank is becoming an increasingly meaningless concept," he said. "I wouldn't mind seeing it disappear."\nWheeler went on to predict that class rank will become completely meaningless by 2011.\nCouncil members will suggest changes if they deem them necessary, and Miller said the council hopes to discuss the admissions standards again at the March 7 meeting.