Straight Talk from the President - October 28, 2009
Dear Colleagues,
The Louisiana Postsecondary Education Review Committee (LaPERC) convened earlier this week in Baton Rouge, continuing their examination of Louisiana’s higher education system amid the challenges of a dwindling economy. Following two days of deliberations and presentations, the committee has recommended the implementation of tighter admission standards at four-year institutions to improve graduation rates starting with the freshman class of Fall Semester 2012. The Commission recommended these standards be reviewed by the Louisiana Board of Regents and various management boards so that admission requirements would be strengthened at all four-year institutions.
University of Louisiana System President Dr. Randy Moffett and the Board of Supervisors prepared for this eventuality last week with the adoption of stronger admission standards, including higher high school grade point averages and ACT scores. A cursory analysis indicates that these admission standards would not fundamentally affect our freshman class; however, the issue will continue to be the retention of those students. Many of our current efforts are directed at retaining those students and our university must step up its efforts to meet LaPERC’s suggested goal of 50 percent graduation rates by 2018.
The presidents of all three four-year university systems made presentations to Commissioners on Monday. Dr. Moffet’s presentation, available on LaPERC’s web site (http://laperc.org/) sufficiently impressed commissioners, as did the presentation of Dr. Bill McCown, chair of the Strategic Resource Allocation Committee and ULM psychology professor. The Commission noted the proactive stance adopted by both ULM and the UL System.
The Commission will meet again Nov. 16-17 to examine academic programs and how colleges and universities serve their geographic regions. In addition, committee members specifically requested information on tuition levels and tuition setting policies for the state. They also requested information related to the size and compensation of the various university system staff. The Commission is considering ways to improve the relationship between the four-year and two-year college systems in the state, including enhancing articulation agreements. We will keep you apprised of their deliberations in the weeks and months ahead.
The committee is also planning to discuss funding for higher education at their December meeting.
As our state continues to negotiate an unsettling economic environment, our institution and our educators still strive for academic excellence. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) visited our College of Education and Human Development in early October, and while we will not know the final results of the report until this spring, we received a draft of the recommendation that shows the college met or exceeded all NCATE standards. In addition, the review team rated the faculty as exemplary in the area of scholarly productivity.
And over in the College of Arts & Sciences, the Department of Social Work, led by Dr. Pamela Saulsberry, received notice of full accreditation of that program through 2015.
Finally, the Construction Management Program, led by Dr. Keith Parker, maintained the stringent standards of the American Council for Construction Education (ACCE). The AACE Board of Trustees recently announced the renewal of accreditation for the program, which became the first nationally accredited program of its kind more than 30 years ago. It is housed in the College of Business Administration.
I applaud our Deans Dr. Sandra Lemoine, Dr. Jeffrey Cass and Dr. Ronald Berry, as well as our outstanding faculty, for their diligence in achieving such commendable results.
Sincerely,
James E. Cofer
President