THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996 TAG: 9602180009
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
Virginia Wesleyan College wants students and parents to know the four-year degree isn't dead.
The college will soon begin offering a guarantee that if students keep up their grades, they will be assured of getting the courses they need to receive a diploma in four years. Fewer than one in three college students in the nation graduate in four years.
``This is a way to assure students and parents that there's not going to be the cost of a fifth year,'' said Martha E. Rogers, vice president for enrollment management. That, she said, is a top concern of parents, who hear that some students at public colleges must stay there for five or six years because required courses are offered less regularly.
The guarantee, approved by the college's faculty and board earlier this month, will take effect with freshmen entering in the fall. To take advantage of it, students will have to sign a contract when they enroll at Wesleyan - promising to talk to advisers and meet the college's grade requirements.
Virginia Wesleyan is a private liberal arts school, affiliated with the United Methodist Church. It has 1,580 students.
It is the first college in the state to offer such a guarantee, said Margaret A. Miller, associate director of the State Council of Higher Education. Virginia Wesleyan officials say that only a handful of other schools in the country are making this promise, and that Wesleyan may be the first private school to do so.
Miller said: ``What the college is essentially saying is, `We're going to provide the courses that are needed, and we're going to make it a top priority for us. And we're going to provide good advising so students know what they should be taking.' Those are two worries students have, and it's a good move on Virginia Wesleyan's part to allay those worries.''
Rogers said the college is already fulfilling those goals: ``It really won't make the experience of Virginia Wesleyan different in one iota. This is a tool to market the fact that students don't have problems getting through in four years. Our advising system is very good; it's very rare for students to fall through the cracks.''
Mike Mercado, a 17-year-old senior at Tallwood High School, said Wesleyan has a good idea. ``If you know you'll get the requirements you need, you won't have to stay any longer'' than four years, he said.
Wesleyan's guarantee typifies a trend in higher education to offer promises to students and parents.
Old Dominion University, for instance, has begun promising all students a one-semester internship. Gov. George F. Allen, in his 1996-98 budget proposal, wants contracts guaranteeing that tuition increases will not exceed the rate of inflation.
``There are more and more schools doing this kind of thing,'' said David Merkowitz, a spokesman for the American Council on Education in Washington. ``Everybody is looking for a small competitive edge and responding to concerns by students and their families about the cost of higher education.''
Rogers said it is also part of an effort to win back public confidence in colleges: ``We're going to see that word (guarantee) thrown in more often because it's a word people associate with accountability, and we in higher education must prove to our constituents that we are accountable.''
To qualify, Wesleyan students must take a full course load and meet the grade requirements in their academic department. The college does not have to fulfill the guarantee if a student fails a course or switches majors after the junior year.
Although some high school seniors liked Wesleyan's plan, Melanie Panza, a 17-year-old senior from Ocean Lakes High, thought it wouldn't help many seniors. ``There are a limited amount of students who know exactly what they want to do'' when they start college, she said. ``When you go to college, your perspective changes, so your major changes.''
But Greg Freedland, 20, a Wesleyan junior who served on the panel that drafted the idea, predicted that the promise would push students to decide their majors earlier. ``A lot of the trouble students get into is because they wait till the middle of their sophomore year to get into a program,'' he said.
Rogers said the guarantee would also attract higher-caliber students to Wesleyan. Students, for instance, who plan to go on to medical or graduate school would be among those most concerned about getting their undergraduate degrees in four years, she said.
The proportion of Wesleyan freshmen who graduate within four years is 42 percent, Rogers said. That's above the 34 percent average for state-supported colleges in Virginia and the 31 percent national average.
She said the guarantee could help raise the number a bit, but that other factors contribute to the figure: Wesleyan has a large proportion of adult students, who go to school part-time, and military personnel and dependents, who often move before they graduate.
Nationally, students and administrators have cited academic and financial problems as the leading causes of declining graduation rates. by CNB