Guaranteeing Acceptance

At a press conference held on Nov. 14 at Manchester Community College, Michael Hogan, president of UConn, and Marc Herzog, chancellor of the community college system, signed an agreement to benefit community college graduates. It guarantees acceptance into UConn for anyone who graduates from a Connecticut community college with an associate's degree, as long as they have at least a 3.0 grade point average in a liberal arts or an approved major.

Hogan calls this a "win-win situation" for the students and university, stating, "UConn's greatest gain is opening our enrollment to more young people in Connecticut who are outstanding students, especially those from disadvantaged, minority and first-generation-attending-college families.

As a public university, UConn has a responsibility to provide this access, and the new agreement - which I like to call a two-plus-two agreement - allows us to meet that responsibility with a minimum of administrative expense."

Some students are concerned that this agreement will not benefit the current student body.

"There is already a problem with overcrowding on campus and limited housing," said Katherine Bickford, a 5th-semester English major. "Won't this new wave of automatically-accepted students increase this problem?"

"Over the next 10 years, demographic projections show that UConn's recruiting base - the number of students who will be applying for admission to UConn as first-year students - will decline by 8 percent," Hogan said. "To maintain enrollment at current levels and to insure full utilization of our facilities and our resources, we need to broaden our pool of potential students. The two-plus-two agreement provides the perfect way to achieve this. Over time, the agreement will change slightly the mix but not the numbers of our student population."

Other apprehensions about this agreement stem from the possibility of an influx of unprepared students.

However, Tom Deans, an associate professor and director of the English department, said that this is a misconception in some cases.

"I personally can add that one of my flat-out best and brightest writing center tutors last year was a transfer student from Manchester CC," Deans said. "When she graduated in spring, she was in the top reaches of that class of UConn English majors."

Though there may be differences between the hiring practices of community colleges and UConn, Keith Barker, vice provost and head of the Institute of Teaching and Learning, said, "Our training is designed to suit this type of university, and theirs is to fulfill their own needs. This does not imply that the instructors are any less knowledgeable or able. However, it is important to note that our focus is on the success of the transferring students, regardless of the manner in which they were previously taught."

"Though there is no formal agreement, we will be assisting instructors in these schools to ensure that the transferring students are up to speed," Barker added. "There is a day workshop scheduled in March, and I have also been in touch with instructors at Three Rivers Community College about this matter."

Hogan said that there is little cause for alarm that unprepared students are being guaranteed admission to UConn.

"Data show that community-college graduates have the same record of success at major four-year universities as do students who enter as freshmen," he said. "For both, there is usually a slight dip in GPA the first semester but then a rebound as students adjust to their new environment."

On a final note, Hogan added, "Traditionally, public research universities have served as the 'stairway to success' for a large cohort of our population who do not have access to private colleges and universities for a variety of reasons. So this agreement helps us better fulfill this important part of UConn's mission to the people of this state."

Contact Brendan Eckert at Brendan.Eckert@UConn.edu.