Des Moines Register
09-28-06
Regent challenges state schools' top-half admittance policy
A regent says state universities' acceptance of those in the top half of their high
school classes may be wrong.
By ERIN JORDAN
REGISTER IOWA CITY BUREAU
Cedar Falls, Ia. - A long-standing rule that Iowa's public universities automatically
accept the top half of Iowa high school graduates may be shortchanging
students, a member of the Iowa Board of Regents said Wednesday.
The so-called 50 percent rule, implemented in 1958, may lead some high school
students to avoid rigorous classes, such as physics or college mathematics,
because they do not want to fall into the bottom half of their graduating classes,
said Regent Teresa Wahlert.
"I think we have a responsibility to set expectations and standards," Wahlert said
at the board's meeting in Cedar Falls. "Things like the 50 percent rule, it really
tells us we're measuring the wrong thing."
Instead, universities should evaluate the rigor of classes, because research
shows students who take tough high school courses - even if they do not do well
- are more successful in college, she said.
A study of Iowa students who took the ACT college entrance exam in 2006 found
a drop in the percentage of those who took core classes recommended for
college success.
Sixty-three percent of the students who took the exam also took the ACTrecommended high school classes - four years of English and at least three
years each of math, science and social studies. That's down from 66 percent who
took the classes in each of the past seven years.
Iowa's 50 percent rule was also blamed for the University of Iowa slipping four
spots to 25th among public universities in the 2007 U.S. News & World Report
rankings of the nation's colleges and universities
A regents committee is studying admissions requirements and will report to the
board in November.
Also Wednesday:
- The regents approved the U of I's plan to build a $69 million student recreation
center, to open in 2009. Student fees will pay for $59.4 million of the cost of the
216,000-square-foot center. The U of I Athletics Department will cover most of
the rest.
- The regents approved - but committed no money to - a U of I proposal to open
a two-year, noncredit program for people with multiple learning disabilities.
Students would pay between $25,000 and $30,000 in annual tuition for the
program, which would seek to build academic and life skills and improve
socialization and career placement opportunities. The program would be selfsupporting after an initial $2 million in start-up costs, the U of I reported.
Wine wins OK
The Iowa Board of Regents on Wednesday approved an Iowa State University
plan to create a Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute within ISU's College
of Agriculture.
The institute would "provide excellence in wine and winemaking (enology)
research, teaching and Extension education to support the development of the
Midwest's growing grape and wine industry," ISU said.
The wine institute, which would cost about $760,000 over the next three years,
would be paid for by the Iowa Grape and Wine Development Commission, ISU
Extension, the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and a private
donor, ISU said.