minorities By Natasha Bhuyan
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Monday, April 11, 2005
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The UA is looking for a better breed of students by kicking up recruitment efforts and tightening admissions standards.

Paul Kohn, interim director of admissions and new student enrollment, said on top of increasing recruitment efforts through the Mascots program, the UA has consolidated Early Academic Outreach with Minority Student Recruitment, a move which will sustain contact with prospective minority students.

"Recruitment of undergraduate students to our campus is vital to UA's success," Kohn said. "It is to the benefit of the students, staff, faculty and the community to have the most diverse and talented student body join us each semester."

Patricia MacCorquodale, dean of the Honors College, said the college is also intensifying efforts to recruit top students with their new National Scholars program.

Instead of solely catering to National Merit Scholar semifinalists, the new program also recruits National Hispanic Scholars and National Achievement Semifinalists, a group made up of Black scholars.

"We think the number one strength of the university is the academic programs," MacCorquodale said. "We give (scholars) an orientation that gives them an overview of the UA Honors College, honors housing and then colleges take students and show them what is best about the university."

With the UA spending more on recruitment and changing their admissions standards this fall, MacCorquodale expects the university will attract better students, which will also increase the school's visibility in national rankings.

Increased recruitment means increased spending, with the university forking over $400 per student for each nonresident overnight stay and $100 for prospective resident students, MacCorquodale said.

Recruitment funds are generated through application fees, programs such as UA101, and support from the vice president for Enrollment Management, Kohn said.

Raphael Bressel, a pre-computer science freshman and National Merit Scholar, said he was recruited his senior year by the engineering, math and computer sciences programs at the UA.

During recruitment, MacCorquodale said students have the chance to see different aspects of the university depending on their interests, such as the Poetry Center, labs, entrepreneurial projects or classes.

In Bressel's case, computer science representatives took Bressel out to lunch and showed him the strong points of the university.

"That kind of stuff was cool, but the monetary incentives were effective on their own," Bressel said.

Arizona National Merit Scholars, which are determined by PSAT scores among other factors, are offered renewable scholarships ranging from $8,000 to $10,500 per year.

Although the UA enrolled 76 merit scholars compared to ASU's 162, recruitment efforts look to be paying off as the figure is the highest in the university's history, MacCorquodale said.

While ASU offers lucrative scholarships to national merits in order to increase the school's national profile, the UA is more successful in gaining Flinn Scholars. Considered Arizona's best students, 75 percent of Flinn Scholars choose the UA, MacCorquodale said.

But the UA is also stronger than ASU in recruiting resident National Merit Scholars, said Provost George Davis, who helped recruit Flinn scholars last year by personally calling their homes.

In addition, the UA is expanding its base of nonresident scholars, Davis said.

While in previous years the UA would get three to six nonresident National Merit Scholars, last year the school scored 29 nonresidents.

Heidi Hayes, a biochemistry sophomore and National Merit Scholar who hails from Minneapolis, said when the UA flew her to Tucson, she had the opportunity to tour labs, sit in classes and meet biochemistry faculty members.

The combination of the exposure and the scholarship convinced Hayes to come to the UA. Hayes is now a member of Shadow Cats, a volunteer recruitment branch of the Honors College.