UNM community members can give input on proposed admissions standards changes and get responses to their concerns by e-mailing the Office of Enrollment Management.
The e-mails are posted on an online forum linked to the main page of the UNM Web site. There have been 33 comments on the forum since it opened Oct. 1. To keep the discussion going, students, faculty, staff and community members can comment until Nov. 15.
Implemented over a three-year period, the new standards would raise the GPA required for admission from 2.25 to 2.5 and raise the number of college preparatory units from 13 to 16.
The online forum has already extracted more specifics about the proposed changes, as a commenter asked for clarification about the increased number of college preparatory units. The comments are posted anonymously.
“The proposal is vague about the incremental changes that will be activated over a three-year period,” one commenter said. “The year one adjustments are presented, but there is no presentation which college preparatory units will be added in years two and three.”
Representatives from Enrollment Management — also anonymous — responded.
“Year one will be the extra social science. Year two extra lab science,” they said. “Year three would ideally be the fourth math.”
In a Sept. 23 interview, Terry Babbit, associate director of the Office of Enrollment Management, said data from the last three years indicates students who took more college preparatory courses were more likely to complete their degrees.
Student Lawrence Alderete said universities pushing students to work harder in high school will benefit America as a whole.
“I think we need to raise the academic standards of all public universities in this country,” he said. “It will make us a little bit more competitive and able to sustain the American way of life in the next 50 to 100 years.”
At the Sept. 23 Board of Regents Student Affairs meeting, Regent Carolyn Abeita said the public’s suggestions for admissions changes are valued.
“I think this is a very important change, and we do need to get as much input and comment as possible,” she said. “I think this affects not just our community, but the broader state community. We need to give parents the opportunity to comment on this.”
Student Zana Willie said that raising standards would likely improve the University’s reputation.
“UNM is just a backup school for a lot of people,” she said. “That will probably change if they raise the standards because it will be harder to get it in.”
BOX:
Comment on admissions standards
Visit www.unm.edu/admissions/arp
E-mail TellUs@unm.edu
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