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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Admission Changes Concern Some

By Martin Salazar
Journal Staff Writer
       Discussions by University of New Mexico administrators about increasing admission requirements have drawn concerns from the League of United Latin American Citizens.
    The national organization approved a series of resolutions earlier this month, including one expressing fear that the prospective changes "will delay and in many cases deny admission to many marginally qualified Hispanics thus once again closing the doors of opportunity to our minority students."
    Among the ideas floated by UNM were gradually increasing grade point average requirements and requiring prospective students to take more college prep courses in high school in order to better prepare them for university work.
    Though UNM regents were briefed on the ideas, no formal proposal has been made. The LULAC resolution asks UNM to suspend any changes until an understanding of the consequences is developed.
    Jamie Koch, president of the UNM Board of Regents, agreed that changing admission standards could adversely impact Hispanic students.
    "The situation is that when you start changing those standards you're going to affect minorities, and you've got to be very careful how you do it," he said Wednesday.
    Koch said UNM must consider all those issues carefully before instituting any changes to admission standards. UNM President David Schmidly has said UNM wants feedback on the proposals. He said UNM's goal is helping students succeed.