Eligibility Hinders University Diversity

Eligibility

● Only 44 percent of Arizona's Class of 2004 graduates were eligible for university admission.

The highest:

● Asian students had by far the highest percentage, with 66 percent of the state's 842 Asian students ready to pursue four-year degrees.

The rest:

52% of the 14,825 white graduates.

31% of the 621 black graduates.

30% of the 3,684 Hispanic graduates.

21% of the 570 American Indian graduates.

TUCSON (By Inger Sandal, Arizona Daily Star) June 4, 2004 - Arizona's universities would have to boost enrollment and graduation rates for most ethnic groups to meet new performance measures that regents will consider for the first time this fall.

But diversity on Arizona's campuses still won't mirror state demographics - at least initially - because success would depend on drawing more high school graduates who are eligible for admission.

Only 44 percent of Arizona's Class of 2004 could have academically entered one of the state's three public universities last fall.

"I think all of education has a challenge to graduate more qualified students from high school," Tucson Regent Jack Jewett said. "Qualified high school graduates should reflect the diversity of the state."

The state's public universities also must do a much better job reaching out to potential college students and helping them earn four-year degrees, he said.

The performance measures, which are still being developed, would take effect as the state's public universities gain more control over enrollment.

Starting in 2006, only students who graduate in the top 25 percent of their high school classes and have no academic deficiencies will be assured admission. Currently, the top 50 percent are assured admission.

Regents last month asked the provosts at the three universities to recommend goals by the time they meet in November. The measures also will include the success of students who spend their first two years at a community college and affordability issues, such as how much debt students take on before graduation.

The new goals wouldn't displace students in overrepresented groups, said Tom Wickenden, the regents' associate executive director.

University of Arizona leaders said diversity is one of many factors likely to be considered as the school moves toward more selective enrollment.

The regents would set the same goals for all student groups, Wickenden said. Asian students and black students exceeded or met the statewide average of eligible Arizona high school graduates who enrolled in the state's universities last fall, at 71 percent and 48 percent respectively. Below that 48 percent average were American Indian students, of which 47 percent of the eligible students enrolled, white students at 46 percent, and Hispanic students at 42 percent.

Wickenden said increasing the numbers of eligible students who choose the UA, Arizona State University or Northern Arizona University would be significant. For example, even if the regents just set the current average as a goal, the system would need to add 200 Hispanic students, Wickenden said.

The UA would have to increase its enrollment and graduation rate of Hispanic students by nearly 80 percent to match the state's population, according to the UA's Latino Policy Research Initiative. Hispanics account for about 25 percent of the state's population and about 14 percent of all UA's undergraduates, or 19 percent of its resident undergraduates. The UA has a goal of becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution, a federal designation that means in part that at least 25 percent of students are Hispanic.

UA leaders also have a goal of raising the school's overall graduation rate - which hasn't budged from 55 percent for several years - to 58 percent by 2009. Asian and white students currently have graduation rates of 58.2 percent. Hispanics are at 49.3 percent, black students at 38.8 percent and American Indians at 26.3 percent.

UA President Peter Likins said he expects it will take time to establish realistic system-wide goals. "We will set numeric goals because the regents have asked us to do that," Likins said Friday. "We're all going to have to learn as we go along, because this is, for the Arizona universities, a new era in enrollment management."

The regents have long tracked student performance but adopted a more streamlined, easier-to-use system after giving the universities more freedom to pursue diverging missions under the Changing Directions initiative. That includes more authority to control enrollment, said Likins, whose campus is developing a more selective admissions process as it nears its 40,000-student capacity.

The best way to increase the number of underrepresented students is to reach out and make them feel welcome, said Cazandra Zaragoza, 20, a UA junior studying physiology.

"You need to go to the high schools - and all of the high schools, not just the schools on the North Side," she said. "Students who weren't considering going to the university, when they see the UA cares about them, maybe they will rethink that decision."

However, the bigger need is to work with the school districts to increase the number of qualified graduates, she said. "Everybody has the right to get the best education," said Zaragoza, a Californian whose mother's family is from Tucson.

José Luis Santos, director of the Latino Policy Research Initiative, shared Zaragoza's sentiments, saying the regents were on the right track by setting goals.

"It is a smart public investment to go after that pool of students that already meets eligibility criteria but for some reason are not attending our universities," he said. But he noted that many of the state's eligible graduates already are predisposed to come to college and include top scholars who pose different challenges because they're being wooed with lucrative offers from top institutions.

Santos stressed that the universities have social and moral responsibilities as public institutions to work with Arizona's students in kindergarten through 12th grade to ensure more students become eligible for admission.