THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 6, 1995 TAG: 9512060422
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
With no dissent and little debate, Old Dominion University's Faculty Senate on Tuesday approved raising the university's admission standards to cut down on student failure.
The vote virtually ensures that the standards, which were drafted by the administration, will be enacted next year.
Outside the meeting, at Webb Center, most students said they supported the move. ``I think it will be very good for the school,'' said Spencer Betts, a junior majoring in physics. ``It will bring in a higher quality of people.''
Stacey Stevens, a senior majoring in international business, said it would enhance the value of her diploma.
``I think the school has gotten a lot of recognition recently for sports,'' she said. ``But I don't think you can base your entire reputation on sports. If I go out in the business world, I want to be recognized for the curriculum I've taken.''
At the senate meeting, A. James English, director of the university's environmental health program, ticked off the statistics pointing to academic problems among freshmen: Forty-two percent of the entering class last school year failed to make a C average; 60 percent of those have since dropped out.
``It is clear that admission standards should be raised,'' he said. ``. .
The new standards would have excluded at least 60 of this year's 1,600 freshmen. Specifically, students will not be admitted if:
They have below a 2.0, or C, grade point average in high school.
They have less than a 700 SAT score.
Their GPA is below 2.5 and their SAT score is below 750.
Their GPA is below 2.3 and their SAT score is below 800.
ODU generally requires a 2.0 average and 850 SAT score, but admits more than 300 students a year who don't meet one or both of those standards.
Betts said in an interview: ``If you can't get a 2.0 or 700 (SAT score), that's pretty pathetic. You clearly don't have the fortitude to come to school.''
An additional category of applicants - those who have at least a 2.5 GPA but an SAT score below 720 - would be put ``on hold.'' They might be admitted depending on the university's goal for the size of its freshman class.
About 30 professors attended the meeting. No one spoke against the plan, but some professors asked for clarifications. English said, for instance, that the plan would not apply to athletes.
In response to a question on how ODU's admission standards compared with those of other colleges, English cited a recent state study showing that Old Dominion admitted 84 percent of applicants from Virginia last year. That was the fifth-highest rate among the 15 state-supported four-year schools.
ODU officials have not estimated what their acceptance rate might be under the new standards.
The senate spent nearly twice as long - about 45 minutes - debating an administration plan to offer a new contract to faculty members before voting down the idea.
The contract would allow faculty members to work both a summer session and either the fall or spring semester. They would get the same pay as if they worked a normal school year. The goal is to boost summer-school enrollment, one of the state's priorities.
Administrators said they would not force any professors to take the summer option if they didn't want it. But some members of the faculty body worried that professors without tenure would feel obliged to sign on.
``This thing is very anti-family,'' said Hani Elsayed-Ali, an associate professor of electrical engineering. ``If we were forced to teach in the summer, the faculty is unable to see its children.''
The faculty voted overwhelmingly to reject the proposal. by CNB