LSU seeks policy to foster growth

• By JORDAN BLUM
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Mar 23, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 03.23.08

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Many students wanting to get into LSU anxiously watch their high-school grades and standardized test scores.

In its drive to become a nationally competitive “flagship” university, LSU has based its admissions standards mainly on ACT  scores and minimum GPAs.

But a new LSU leadership is moving toward choosing students in a somewhat different way — and raising fears that the quality of students will slip.

The “evolving” change in the admissions policy allows greater consideration of factors such as leadership experience and family circumstances.

LSU officials say it is part of a strategy to add students and eventually increase tuition, bringing in the additional revenue needed to improve academic quality. They contend the plans will increase quantity and quality without dropping admissions standards at all.

As LSU tries to expand its enrollment by at least 3,000 students, some observers fear the end result will weaken the school’s selectivity.

The new leadership’s plans would reverse the push for a smaller enrollment seen during the administration of Sean O’Keefe, who resigned as LSU’s  chancellor in January.

Shortly after stepping down, O’Keefe said he feared LSU might sacrifice academic standards in its drive to grow larger, increase revenue and build better facilities.

LSU System President John Lombardi and Astrid Merget,  LSU’s executive vice chancellor and provost, say the university must get bigger.

Increased revenue from more student tuition means more money to hire more top faculty and heighten academic prestige, Lombardi said. That must happen for LSU to thrive, he said.

The bigger picture
What Lombardi and Merget are pushing is called “full-file review” — looking at all of a student’s activities and scholastic work rather than focusing almost exclusively on test scores and GPAs.

The two say full-file review is a way to cater to top in-state and out-of-state students by offering better financial-aid packages more in line with their academic interests. Also, some high-school seniors might make great college students even though they fall short in one of the number-based admissions criteria, Merget said.

“Maybe, four years ago, a parent died or they were ill or there was a divorce in their family or they just moved here and there was an adjustment,” she said. “That’s not lowering the standards as far as I’m concerned. It’s not a detached, dehumanized, only-scores approach.”