But the administrator overseeing enrollment-management issues responded that while the quality of the student body has declined somewhat, an overhaul of admissions standards to create minimum criteria will not address the true problem, which is fewer good or outstanding students applying to UB.

Nicolas Goodman, vice provost for undergraduate education, said that it is "entirely appropriate" for the faculty to determine admissions standards, but cautioned against establishing "some kind of floor," such as a minimum SAT score of 1150 or four years of high-school science courses.

"No large university in the fluctuating environment such as we find ourselves in can afford to do that," Goodman told members of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee at the group's April 22 meeting.

Enrollment figures, he added, have to be determined, in part, by "budgetary considerations-that's just the real world."

Goodman was responding to Charles Fourtner, professor of biological sciences, who said that enrollment policy at UB is based to a certain extent on making sure the university gets enough students "to keep this place running.

"I'm not blaming the administration for that; I'm really blaming the faculty," Fourtner said. "The faculty has to take a position on what kind of students do we want to bring in here. What type of product do we want to put out?"

Nothing in UB's admissions standards-admission to UB is based on an applicant's high-school grades, rank in class and SAT and ACT scores-indicates that the university seeks to admit students from the top 10 or 25 or 75 percent of their high-school class, he noted. But UB does admit students who rank in the top 40-60 percent of their class, he pointed out.

"You don't know that as faculty; maybe you don't want to know that. Maybe it's more convenient for us to say 'Let's open the door and let people come in until we fill the enrollment targets.'

"I'm uncomfortable in the classroom with that," he said. "Maybe we as faculty at this university are OK with that."

Fourtner said he had hoped Noel-Levitz, the enrollment-management consulting firm UB has hired to provide advice, software and technical help to aid the university in its recruitment efforts, would address admissions standards. But so far, he said, the topic has been ignored.

"As a faculty, I don't think we have paid a whole hell of a lot of attention to what's going on. Even if we did, with the way we do things (recruit students), I don't think it would make any difference."

Fourtner recalled that when UB last discussed admissions standards in the 1970s, "everybody had different ideas, so we ended up with a statement that is really a statement that could be from any four-year, undergraduate school; we're no different.

"We've got to decide whether this place as an institution wants to be different and whether we want to get that top 10 percent.

"If we do, we as a faculty have got to play a role."

Fourtner called his comments "a bit somber, but it's reality; it's the way we function.

"I'm concerned about this place," he said. "If you take a look at your classes, you've got to be concerned, too."

Goodman said that while UB's admissions approach in the past was largely passive, Noel-Levitz has given the university "the tools and the attitudes that were required to take a more active approach to recruiting freshmen," he said.

He outlined several strategies that have been put into place that involve "continuous, individualized communication with the prospective student:"

- Telecounseling, which he jokingly described as those "annoying telephone calls at the dinner hour"

- A more complex plan of direct mailings

- A computerized method of tracking inquiries from prospective students

- A modern system of "grading the prospect pool" that identifies the factors that make it likely a student will enroll, so more effort is going into working with those students who are more likely to come to UB.

Although the number of applications is still lower than at this time last year, the number of deposits is higher, he said, adding that UB has seen a significant improvement in yield.

Next year, Admissions hopes to begin using these techniques in August, he said, to significantly increase the number of applications.

By increasing the number of applications and increasing the yield, Admissions can raise the cutoffs for the students that are offered admission to UB, thereby giving the university "a higher profile and a better group of students."

Goodman noted that the faculty perceives that the overall quality of the student body has diminished largely because the "range" of students UB is attracting has narrowed-fewer of the very good prospects are coming to UB.

"The real problem is not that the average student is significantly weaker...but that there are fewer good students, fewer excellent students, so that teaching them is less exciting," he said.

The cause of the problem, to some extent, is the perception among parents and prospective students that the quality of the student body at UB is not good, he said. So the best students do not apply.

Goodman hopes that that problem can be addressed in part by using the techniques from Noel-Levitz to communicate with not only those students who already have applied, but with prospective students with a more attractive profile.

A year or two down the road, the perception that the quality of the student body is increasing "should by itself increase not only the quality, but the number of applicants," he said.

And once there is a larger pool of better applicants, "we can raise the standards and we can begin to be in an upward spiral in the quality of the undergraduate student," he said.

Goodman noted that faculty members can have more of an effect in recruiting transfer students, who are more sophisticated, usually apply to a specific program and want to talk to faculty.

Dennis Malone, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, agreed that faculty are more helpful in recruiting transfer students and are interested in taking part.

"Faculty, by and large, are willing to help, either in the retention mode or the recruiting mode, providing you tell them what to do," Malone said. "They're not saying 'I don't care that enrollment is not up,' they're saying, 'OK, what do you want me to do.'"

He said he has visited some four-year colleges to speak to prospective transfer students, "and there it is very clear to me that students do not want to talk to some associate neutron; they want to talk to a faculty member in the discipline they're interested in."