FSEC hears Durkin on admissions outlook; UB to recruit out-of-state

By SUE WUETCHER
News Services Associate Director

On the plus side, he noted that there was an increase in the number of applications from residents of the eight counties of Western New York and in the number of applications in which UB was the only choice or the first choice on the four-choice SUNY application.

University administrators announced at the meeting that UB will be undertaking a massive effort to recruit domestic out-of-state students for the fall 1997 semester, as well as developing its own application process for those students.

Durkin said the Office of Admissions processed 19,932 completed applications for the fall 1996 semester, and made 14,469 offers of admission, both numbers representing aggregate figures that included freshmen, transfer students and students enrolling via such programs as the Equal Opportunity Program and the Individualized Admissions Program. Preliminary indications are that 4,727 new students have enrolled, a 32.6 percent aggregate yield.

He stressed that the entire SUNY system experienced a decline in applicants for the current academic year.

"If I were to display on a matrix of some sort, every unit in SUNY and every category, we would see a decline in all," he said. "Every program, every type. Freshman, transfer, in-state, out-of-state, male, female, resident, commuter, matriculated, non-matriculated, full time, part time. All negative."

Durkin described the enrolling freshman class as having a mean high-school average of about 90, a rank in class of between 77 and 80 percent, and a mean SAT combined verbal and math score of about 1150.

"We're all delighted we've made the numbers, but the concern around this table and among our faculty colleagues is the issue of quality," said Claude Welch, chair of the Faculty Senate. While he said he was satisfied with the freshman class' rank in class, he found it distressing that UB accepts roughly three-quarters of the students who apply, and less than a third of those accepted are matriculated.

"Those who are applying are increasingly local, and for our sense of serving New York State as a whole and in particular the hope to increase the number of out-of-state students and make some changes in tuition policy, I think this would be an item for concern," Welch said.

He added that he also was con-

cerned about the decline in applications for transfer students, despite major recruitment and other efforts.

"We're glad about the numbers; but we're concerned about some trends."

Robert Palmer, vice president for student affairs, revealed that UB has put together an aggressive plan to recruit students from outside New York State.

"We plan to aggressively go after out-of-state students and significantly expand applications from transfer students," he said.

Durkin noted that his office has the names and addresses of more than 40,000 non-New York State high-school seniors, and will attend college and career fairs in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Boston, and Southern Ontario, to name a few cities.

"Can we change 60 or 70 freshmen (from outside New York State) into 120 or 150? Absolutely. Can we change 250 out-of-state transfers into 350? I think we can. We have to spend some money and we have to spend some time," he said.

Provost Thomas Headrick said UB would like to get out of the SUNY system admissions process and plans to develop its own application process for out-of-state students.

"One of our problems with encouraging out-of-state students (to attend UB) is that we encourage them to come to Buffalo and they get an application that is sent to Albany. It's a little confusing," he said. "We're going to start there (with transfer students) and then we hope to broaden it to all applications."

Headrick noted that there are some roadblocks to such a plan, the chief of which is opposition within the SUNY administration.

In other admissions-related matters, FSEC members received a written report from Durkin on the Individualized Admissions Program, which takes students' special talents into consideration as part of the admissions process.

Charles Fourtner, professor of biological sciences and a member of the Individualized Admissions Committee, pointed out that a comparison of the grade-point average of students admitted through the IAP with that of students admitted through the regular admissions process will show the average "doesn't diverge to any great extent" from the GPA of the "regular" freshmen, which is somewhere about a 2.5.

Judith Adams, director of Lockwood Library and a member of the Individualized Admissions Committee and the senate's Admissions and Retention Committee, emphasized that admissions standards are not ignored in the cases of students admitted through IAP.

"These students do relate to the admissions standards we have; they might be somewhat below, but they do relate to those admission standards," Adams said. "And they may be below in one area, rather than in all areas, which pulls them below the "T" score."

She said the committee looks for "special talents, outstanding talent in some area that we feel, when looking at them individually, gives them a certain edge or reason to be here.

"So I don't think we're throwing out the admissions standards; these people are looked at in terms of what our standards are and whether there are some factors which would mitigate a problem in a certain area."

Mitchell Harwitz, associate professor of economics and chair of the Admissions and Retention Committee, told FSEC members that his committee's most pressing concerns were items that would improve student retention. Retaining 85-90 percent of freshman classes would mean another 150-200 students would stay in the institution and would not have to be replaced in succeeding freshman classes, he noted.

The committee this semester will conduct what Harwitz called "an experiment," in conjunction with Academic Advisement, to determine if freshmen who participate in an "aggressive advisement program" are more likely to continue as students. A sample group of 50-60 freshmen who will meet approximately once a month with faculty advisers will be compared with a control group to determine if enhanced advisement has any effect on retention.

The committee has sent letters to faculty seeking volunteer advisers.