Vol. 36, No. 6, October 1999

USG Reports Progress On 2001 Admissions Goals

At the halfway point to phase-in of its 2001 Admissions Policy, the University System of Georgia is reporting documented success with increasing entering freshmen's academic requirements.

At the October Board of Regents meeting, held at Macon State College, in Macon, Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Dr. James Muyskens reported a 25-point jump in the average SAT score of all first-time freshmen, which increased from 988 in Fall 1996 to 1013 in Fall 1998.

With the focus of the Admissions Policy being on traditional freshmen (entering freshmen who have graduated from high school in the past five years), University System officials also were proud to report a 14-perecent jump in the scores of those students, which increased from 984 in Fiscal Year 1996 to 998 in FY '99.

Scores of entering freshmen at the state's two regional universities in the Southern part of the state increased as well. At Georgia Southern University, SAT scores increased by 9 points, from 964 in FY 1996 to 973 in FY 1998. Valdosta State University recorded a 14 point jump in the same time frame, from 950 to 964.

Research universities also recorded a continued climb in the scores of its traditional entering freshmen, which hit a category high of 1187, a 10-point increase over the 1177 average score recorded in FY '96.

At the same time, the University System recorded a significant decrease in the number of students entering the University System underprepared to perform college-level work.

According to Muyskens, traditional freshmen entering public colleges and universities with an inadequate number of required college preparatory courses has decreased from 27 percent to 16 percent from fiscal year 1996 to fiscal year 1999.

Enrollment of traditional freshmen in the University System requiring learning support courses (because they did not meet the System's minimum requirements) also dropped significantly during the same three-year period, from 36 percent to approximately 21 percent, Muyskens reported. Another 9.2 percent still fail to meet additional admissions requirements established by individual institutions.

"We are where we need to be today, but we still have a long way to go, because we are not where we need to be in 2001," said Muyskens. "We set before ourselves a daunting task, and we've managed to do what we said we would do. But this is no time to be complacent. The second half of this process will be even tougher than the first, because we must focus even harder on the poorest prepared students."

The Board of Regents passed its revised Admissions Policy in 1996, with a goal of phased-in implementation at its 34 colleges and universities beginning in Fall 1997 through Fall 2001.

At that time, the board articulated four goals: increasing average SAT scores, reducing admission of students with CPC deficiencies, reducing the percentage of traditional freshmen in learning support courses, and continuing to serve a diverse population. All four goals are on target, including no substantial decrease in the percentage of African-American students. The percentage of African-American traditional freshmen enrolled in the University System of Georgia totaled 24 percent in Fiscal Year 1996 and 23 percent in FY 1999.

The board's 2001 admissions standards set in place higher standards for traditional freshmen and transfer students. Standards are more flexible for students who have been out of high school more than five years. A full college-prep curriculum will be required of all traditional freshmen, including an additional (fourth) unit of math. In addition, students will be evaluated according to their freshman index, which is comprised of their high-school grade point average and ACT or SAT standardized tests score. All students must meet established minima SAT/ACT scores and grade-point averages, with requirements set higher for access into the University System's universities.

Traditional freshmen without the mandatory college-prep curriculum or who require learning support courses no longer will be admitted to the System's research, regional or state universities. Learning support courses, for those students who still require such support, will be concentrated in the University System's two-year colleges, which will serve as the point of access into the System. Students who succeed at the two-year colleges may then transfer on to a university, aided by enhanced transfer policies also implemented as a component of the revised admissions requirements.

Muyskens said the goal of the board's 2001 admissions policy has been to "balance the new standards with the need for controlled flexibility."

"We've set the right course for our goals, and we are quite mindful of the need for continued communication," Muyskens stated. "Our challenges are to communicate continually our new requirements to future students and to monitor the results diligently, looking for danger signs of any potentially adverse impact of the policy." ¶

Business Leaders Give System High Marks in Survey

Nearly 94 percent of Georgia's business leaders assess the quality of the University System of Georgia as "excellent, very good or good," according to survey results released by the Board of Regents.

The percentage of respondents saying the University System was "excellent" or "very good" rose dramatically, from 41 percent in 1996 to 54 percent in 1998, with the most favorable ratings coming from service-producing industries.

The survey, titled "Business Conditions and Higher Education in Georgia, 1998 Survey Report," was conducted by the Econometric Center at Kennesaw State University and the Ramsey Chair of Private Enterprise at Georgia State University. It was commissioned by the Board of Regents Intellectual Capital Partnership Program (ICAPP) to assess business leaders' perceptions of the quality of higher education in Georgia and the importance of the University System to the economic development of the state.

First conducted in 1996, the survey of business leaders will be repeated in alternate years to "measure the effectiveness of the University System in preparing students for success beyond graduation and in serving as a key partner in Georgia's economic development." In 1997, the System surveyed human resource managers to assess their perceptions; that study will be repeated again this year and every two years thereafter.

Over 91 percent of the survey's respondents have employed graduates of the University System of Georgia. They were asked to rate the preparation of these employees in terms of oral and written communications, computer skills, quantitative skills, critical thinking, the ability to work in teams, and overall performance.

More than 87 percent of the respondents rated USG graduates as "excellent, very good or good" in terms of overall preparation. In the "excellent" and "very good" categories," the ratings represented a dramatic jump: up from 33 percent in the 1996 survey to 44.5 percent in the current survey.

Annie Hunt Burriss, assistant vice chancellor of development and economic services with the Board of Regents, said: "We are pleased with the feedback that we have received from Georgia's business community.

"These surveys provide an excellent assessment of customer satisfaction with our key product, which is graduates. They also provide our presidents and chief academic officers with insightful information to help them enhance and improve our academic, research and public service programs," Burriss stated.

Dr. Roger Tutterow, chair of the economics department in the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University and lead researcher of the survey, said that he "expected much more moderate movement in the survey from 1996 to 1998.

"It takes a significant amount of time to improve large educational systems and perceptions of such systems," Tutterow stated. "To some degree, these results reflect actual improvement as well as the fact that the system is doing a better job of articulating its mission and achievement." Other major findings in the report included:

• In assessing USG graduates' oral communication skills, 85 percent of respondents rated their performance as "excellent, very good or good."
• Over 77 percent of respondents rate USG graduates as having "excellent, very good or good" written communications skills. Forty-six percent (46%) rated these graduates as "excellent" or "very good."
• Nearly 82 percent of respondents rated USG graduates as "excellent, very good or good" in terms of computer skills, with 40 percent rating them as "excellent" or "very good."
• Over 78 percent of respondents rated USG graduates as having "excellent, very good or good" mathematical/quantitative skills, with 37 percent rating them in the first of those two categories. The highest ratings came from businesses in the service-producing industries, rural-based businesses and smaller businesses.
• More than 77 percent of respondents rated USG graduates as excellent, very good or good" in terms of critical thinking skills. Nearly 30 percent rated these graduates as "excellent" or "very good."
• University System graduates scored extremely high in their ability to work in teams. Over 87 percent of business leaders rated them as "excellent, very good or good" in that category, with 42 percent rated as "excellent" or "very good."
• Business leaders were asked what three qualities they most valued in their employees. Oral communication skills (77 percent) and critical thinking skills (74 percent) are considered most important. The ability to work in teams (49 percent) and written communication skills (41 percent) were frequently cited. Computer skills (34 percent) and quantitative skills (23 percent) were less likely to be named.

Business leaders from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Industry Association, Community Bankers Association and the Georgia Economic Developers Association were among those surveyed for the ICAPP survey, with a goal of providing the Board of Regents with benchmarks of how business executives and human resource professionals perceive Georgia's business climate and its University System in order to enhance its services to key customers.

Survey respondents were geographically diverse, representing 112 of Georgia's 159 counties. ¶

Georgia Perimeter College nursing faculty members Verna Rauschenberg and Rosemary Roberts (back) look on as a Honduran nurse practices CPR techniques that were taught in a training seminar.

Georgia Perimeter Helps Honduras Train Nurses
A group of Georgia Perimeter College faculty members brought their nursing expertise to Honduras during a five-day September visit to that country. During the visit, the faculty provided training in physical assessment, arterial blood gases, CPR and EKGs to 80 nurses from throughout the country. Many Honduran nurses already have earned advanced degees, but need the kind of post-graduate training offered by Georgia Perimeter faculty.

"To think that we could actually have an impact on positively changing how nursing is done in Honduras is very exciting and powerful," said Dr. Charlotte Warren, the college's nursing department chair. The Georgia Perimeter group has been invited to return in 2000 to provide additional training in nursing processes to nurses from throughout Central America. ¶

Columbus State Professor Helps UN Find Fresh Water
Columbus State University professor James Gore has been asked by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to serve with 39 other scientists to address the world's growing demand for fresh water.

Gore, director of Columbus State's environmental science graduate studies program, has an international reputation as an ecohydrology expert ‹ the relationship of water flow to aquatic life patterns. UNESCO, he noted, is the world's "only sponsor of joint, international research" into the availability of water for human populations. ¶

UGA's Billard Receives Top Statistics Award
University of Georgia statistics professor Lynne Billard recently received the Samuel S. Wilks Memorial Medal at the annual meeting of the American Statistical Association (ASA). This is the ASA's top research award and Billard was chosen based upon her life's work. She currently works in the field of statistical methodology and applications; her research interests include epidemic theory, AIDS, time series, and sequential analysis.

Billard has been at UGA for 19 years and served as head of the statistics department from 1980 to 1989. The ASA is a scientific and educational society established in 1939. The Samuel S. Wilks Memorial Medal was established in 1964 as a tribute to Samuel Stanley Wilks, who led the development of statistics in the United States. ¶

Darton Helps Hospital Treat Hispanic Patients
Darton College's Division of Continuing Education recently teamed up with Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany to develop "Spanish for the Medical Professional," a customized course which teaches Phoebe employees key Spanish phrases to better communicate with Hispanic customers needing health care.

Utilizing a textbook with questions and phrases specific to medical terminology and diagnostics, the course provided cultural insights to assist the medical professionals in better serving patients. Ten participants attended six, two-hour sessions, which included exercises with Darton College Hispanic students playing the roles of patients with various ailments. The results of the course have encouraged hospital officials to request that Darton develop an intermediate level course to continue the training. ¶

GC&SU's Vess Receives Regents Technology Grant
Dr. Deborah Vess, director of interdisciplinary studies at Georgia College & State University, received a model technology-infused course development grant from the Board of Regents Office of Instructional and Information Technology. The $20,000 grant will allow Vess to develop an on-line, state-of-the-art multimedia textbook for the course, "Fine and Applied Arts in Civilization." The website will contain chapters for the course, along with images of art, digitized music, and state-of-the-art digitized video of lecture presentations. The website is scheduled for completion by this Dec. ¶

Clayton State Staffer Honored
Clayton College & State University's Anthonio Finger was inducted into the 1999 International Who's Who Among Information Technology Professionals. Finger is the founder and technical project coordinator for Clayton State's Technology Enriched Academic Mentors (TEAM) program. The program assists and supports faculty in meeting the technological challenges posed by academic curricula. Finger and his team also have received national media attention for their effort in developing the University's website. ¶

KSU Student Named 'Unsung Heroine'
Karen Grant, a senior majoring in public and social services at Kennesaw State University (KSU), has been named an "Unsung Heroine" by the Metropolitan Atlanta Coalition of Black Women. The award honors ten outstanding volunteers who give their time, talent and resources to others in Metro Atlanta. Grant, a resident of Dallas, Georgia, is a full-time cardiac-care nurse at Piedmont Hospital. She has maintained a 4.0 grade point average while volunteering with the Paulding County Special Education Advisory Committee for the past three years. Grant was nominated for the award by Anne Hicks-Coolick, assistant professor of social work and Ardith Peters, assistant professor of criminal justice at KSU. Grant was presented the award by Coretta Scott King, in a special ceremony honoring the ten Unsung Heroine recipients. ¶

NGC&SU Receives Grant
North Georgia College & State University recently received a $246,365 grant from the Appalachian Regional Development Commission to establish the North Georgia Appalachian Development Center. The Center will provide seminars and workshops to assist Appalachian businesses and community agencies in using web-based technology for financing, marketing and commerce.

The center will support North Georgia Appalachian communities in developing an environment in which technology-based companies can thrive. It also will provide community-based industrial development and tourism agencies with instruction and guidance in the use of web-based technology to publicize and promote the region. ¶

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