Biology sophomore Gina Leverette said she was going to attend Arizona State University.

Then she met a University of Arizona minority recruitment officer at her high school in Chandler, took a trip to Tucson and fell in love with the UA campus.

"Coming in as a freshman was difficult," Leverette said. "It's a big step from high school to college."

Leverette, an African American student who graduated from Chandler High School in 1994, said her experience at the UA has been "pretty good" so far.

Vice President of Student Affairs Saundra Taylor said the UA will continue to focus on minority recruitment and retention and concentrate on increasing minority graduation rates at the UA.

Taylor will present the university's annual minority student progress report to the regents at their meeting tomorrow in the UA Student Union's Rincon Room.

The report shows that minorities make up 21.8 percent of the UA's student population, an increase of 1.1 percent from last year. Statistics show that minorities earned 16.8 percent of degrees awarded between August 1994 and May 1995.

According to the UA FactBook compiled by the Office of Institutional Research, the UA minority population comprises the categories of black, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaskan Native students.

Taylor said she will ask for the regents' support to update seven-year-old minority student information by conducting a transcript study. For the study, the UA will take a sample of transcripts from high schools across the state and determine those students' admissions eligibility.

Taylor said the last study was done in 1989 when the regents initially set minority progress goals for each of the universities.

"It's time to do that again," she said.

Assistant Dean of African American Student Affairs Jesse Hargrove said the minority progress report reflects the effort UA minority student centers have put into recruiting qualified students.

Hargrove said minority students are attracted to the UA because they like the campus environment and they hear about the programs minority student centers offer.

"If they are unhappy they are not going to feel like being here," Hargrove said.

The minority student centers on campus offer networking programs and assistance that have impact on graduation and retention rates, he said.

He said the African American student center will incorporate several programs next year, including one that creates student mentoring "partnerships" to bridge the gap between marginal students and students who excel.

Such programs could help increase minority graduation rates, Hargrove said.

One problem students face, he said, is that they have enough credits to graduate but have not fulfilled degree requirements by their senior years and cannot seem to make it to graduation.

Another problem, he said, centers around academic advising. Hargrove said the center found a lot of students who were not receiving the academic advising they needed to complete their graduation requirements.

Hargrove said the centers help students understand the role of the petition process in solving some of these problems, like substituting alternative courses for classes that are full.

The regents meeting begins tomorrow at 9:45 a.m. and is scheduled to last all day.