by Bryan Gibel
Daily Lobo
University College will need student support to keep from dissolving, the college's dean said.
Peter White said President David Schmidly thinks students should declare a major after being admitted to UNM rather than take classes in University College.
"It has entered into the picture that University College is some sort of cause of the problem, rather than the solution to some of the problems that we have here at UNM with retention and graduation rates," White said Wednesday at an ASUNM meeting.
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Students who enter UNM are admitted to University College until they declare a major.
One of Schmidly's goals during his first year in office is evaluating the importance and effectiveness of University College.
Schmidly said he would examine whether the college has been successful in helping students to graduate.
"We have major challenges in terms of graduating our students," he said. "No decisions have been made about what we'll do."
Schmidly is expected to announce the results of the evaluation by June 1.
He said the five-year graduation rate at UNM is less than 45 percent.
However, the graduation rate for students who have declared a major is usually more than 60 percent, he said.
He said the statistics indicate that University College doesn't help students graduate.
"From what I've seen, the numbers don't show that University College has been beneficial to increasing freshman retention and graduation," he said. "Somehow, we have a very leaky pipeline of students moving from University College to graduation."
White said graduation and retention rates have nothing to do with students taking classes in University College before declaring a major.
"I don't know why University College has been singled out, other than the president's belief that students should be associated with their major immediately," he said.
White said one of the college's goals is to give students time to select their major and to increase retention and graduation rates.
"University College has been intimately and seriously involved with students' success," he said. "That's shown through proven results. Retention has gone up almost every year. This year, I understand it will go up again."
University College is an important resource for students and shouldn't be dissolved, said Matt Barnes, ASUNM vice president.
"It's really important for students to have a buffer zone to figure out what they want to declare as their major," he said. "University College helps students that are struggling, and it cares about students who aren't with a program yet."
