UA graduating about half of its students

The University of Arizona leads the state's three universities in graduating its students in six years, according a study released Friday at the Arizona Board of Regents' meeting in Flagstaff.

But, with that number at only 53 percent, state and UA officials are trying to find ways to improve a student's chance of graduating. The annual report card listed UA's retention rate at 49 percent in 1992.

One explanation for the low figure is directly related to the admissions standards for Arizona's universities, Regents President Judy Gignac said.

"A lot of the University of Arizona's peer institutions have higher admission standards," Gignac said.

The UA admits in-state students who finish in the top 50 percent of their high school graduating class.

The university also accepts Arizona residents with a 2.5 cumulative grade point average, or a minimum SAT test score of 1040.

The University of California at Los Angeles and the University of California at Berkeley have much tougher criteria, said Richard Kroc, UA director of curricular and enrollment research.

Just to be eligible for admission, students must have graduated in the top 12 percent of their class.

Kroc said the poor retention rate is partly because the university admits students who are not ready for the rigors of college.

"Some students are going to struggle a bit more because they're not as academically prepared," Kroc said.

Gignac said low admission standards are not necessarily a problem within the three universities.

Raising the standards would be detrimental to many in-state students hoping to enroll at the UA, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University, she said.

"For our three public institutions, access for as many students as possible is our goal," she said.

Instead of forcing the UA to become more selective, Gignac said she is in favor of tweaking some of the current procedures.

Increasing class availability and revamping the advising system are two ways to improve undergraduate retention, she said.

Providing additional financial aid is also critical in order to reduce students' work loads and free up more time for academic matters, Gignac said.

In other business

Regents granted the UA a $6 million increase to the budget for the new Integrated Learning Center - bringing the total budget for the freshman center to $26 million.

Joel Valdez, UA senior vice president for business affairs, said the extra funding is to meet bids that were coming in higher than originally expected.

"The Tucson market is woefully lacking in skilled crafts," Valdez said.

Construction for the ILC was scheduled to begin this summer, but the start date could be pushed back because of financial concerns.

"We'd like to do it this summer, but there are a lot of hoops and wickets we have to jump through first," said Brian Dolan, construction project manager for the UA facilities division.

The total construction time for the project is estimated at 18 months, Dolan said.

Regents also unanimously approved a new version of the university intellectual properties policy. The new language is designed to "facilitate the flow of discoveries and scientific inventions to industry and various scientific agencies," according to the regents' Web site newsletter.

The new policy will help bring the state's three universities into the same category as their peer institutions, a report released at the meeting stated.

Although researchers from the three schools have earned more than $2 billion in grants over the past 10 years, they have not been successful in transferring their research for commercial licensing.