Panel backs test-optional UA admissions
A test-optional undergraduate admissions policy for the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville won support from trustees at a board meeting Wednesday.
Changing admissions to eliminate testing requirements has been a trend for colleges that accelerated during the pandemic.
At UA, applicants from Arkansas with a high school grade-point average of 3.2 or higher will be considered for admission without having to submit scores from a college-entrance exam, according to the new policy. Students with below a 3.2 “should submit scores,” the policy states.
A trustees committee on Wednesday approved formally continuing what began two years ago, when UA — and many other colleges — dropped ACT or SAT requirements for admission as the coronavirus limited testing opportunities for high school students.
The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees is set to meet again today to consider final approval. The board of trustees is meeting at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville.
UA’s previous policy stated that Arkansas residents with a 3.0 high school gradepoint average met minimum first-year admissions requirements with an ACT score of 20 or higher.
Faculty leaders at UA on May 4 voted in favor of the change after the university’s top admissions official, Suzanne McCray, had earlier said that data on students re-enrolling after their first year justified keeping a test-optional policy.
“The ACT is not a good predictor. High school GPA is a much better predictor,” McCray, UA’s vice provost for enrollment management and dean of admissions, said during an April 13 meeting of UA’s faculty senate.
She said there would be continued study on student outcomes.
McCray, in an April 13 faculty senate meeting, also called the ACT “prejudicial” and presented national data showing that students from less affluent families, on average, score worse on the test.
At many colleges and universities, discussions about test-optional admissions have often involved discussions about boosting opportunities for students from underrepresented populations.
The Arkansas State University System Board of Trustees last June approved test-optional admissions for ASU, the state’s second-largest university behind UA, and ASU Chancellor Kelly Damphousse has said that there’s since been a boost in admissions for Black and other minority students.
Charles Robinson, UA’s interim chancellor, on Wednesday referred to what’s known as student retention.
Robinson called high school grade-point average a “a better predictor of success” than an ACT score.
“That’s what we’re trying to promote, right? Retention,” said Ted Dickey, an investment fund manager and chairman of the board’s Academic and Student Affairs Committee.
Documents presented to trustees described differences between high schools in Arkansas when it comes to student scores on the ACT.
“Currently, there are high schools in Arkansas where no student has the minimum 20 ACT, so these schools often do not allow recruiters from the University of Arkansas to visit since no student is admissible (including valedictorians). By denying these students based on scores, recent studies indicate we may be rejecting students who have a high probability of being retained and of graduating,” the document stated.
Jeremy Wilson, a managing partner for a private equity firm and board member, said, “I hope at the end of the day we do see students from some of these schools get access to the U of A Fayetteville that haven’t historically.”
The policy change only affects admissions, as students must take tests for academic placement and to meet state reporting requirements.
In recent years, about half or slightly more of UA’s incoming freshman class has been from outside Arkansas. The proposed policy, as previously, says that out-of-state applicants may be required to meet higher standards than in-state students.
Back in April, McCray told faculty that several universities, including the University of Oklahoma and the University of Kansas, have switched to test-optional admissions.
Not all similar schools have adopted such policies. The University of Tennessee is reinstating a college-entrance exam admissions requirement beginning with the fall 2023 incoming class, the Associated Press reported earlier this month.
UA System President Donald Bobbitt on Wednesday cited faculty support as key to the UA proposed policy, which he said “could have been very controversial with the faculty.”