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Strategy: Enrolling and Graduating Academically
Talented and Diverse Undergraduate, Graduate and Professional
Students.
Point People:
Judy Sakaki and Winston Ko
Narrative
Summary of First Year Implementation Efforts:
A 2004 UC Eligibility
and Admission Study Group reaffirmed the goal of the admissions
process, as expressed in the 1988 Regents Policy and 2001
Regents Resolution, to “seek out and enroll…a
student body that demonstrates high academic achievement or
exceptional personal talent, and that encompasses the broad
diversity of backgrounds that is characteristic of California.”
Our campus strategic vision to “enroll and graduate
academically talented and diverse undergraduate, graduate
and professional students” parallels the UC goal and
in addition, addresses the retention and graduation of the
student population.
During the 2003-04
year, we have:
- Engaged many
campus groups in discussions about achieving campus enrollment
goals. In the upcoming year, academic deans and faculty
should continue, and expand, their engagement in academic
preparation, recruitment and admissions efforts.
- Increased by
50% the yield of Regents Scholars anticipated to enroll
due to additional financial support from the Provost for
Regents Scholarships and an expanded campus visit program
for prospective scholars and their parents.
- Hosted admitted
students (over 6,000) and their parents during UC Davis
Welcome Week and Decision Days.
- Hosted the bi-annual
UC Counselors Conference, with approximately 1,300 counselors
in attendance, to highlight UC Davis academic programs,
campus facilities and student services.
- Implemented
“phone projects” in which faculty, staff and
students personally contacted prospective students who applied
to UC Davis to encourage their enrollment on this campus.
- Opened the Segundo
North Student Residence Halls, the Activities and Recreation
Center, and the Schaal Aquatic Center. These facilities
are very attractive to prospective students.
- Hired a Development
Director in Student Affairs to assist in raising scholarship
funds and improve our ability to attract academically talented
students.
- Created a new
Director of Outreach, Recruitment and Retention position,
in the Office of Graduate Studies, responsible for recruiting
and retaining academically talented and diverse graduate
students.
- Analyzed time-to-degree
statistics, factors affecting time-to-degree rates and comparisons
among campuses and issued a report entitled Graduation Rates
(Office of Resource Management & Planning, March 2004).
- Implemented
technological enhancements to the e-Recruitment program
including a new Electronic Admit Packet (MyAdmissions),
with electronic notification.
- Initiated a
meeting with the Emeriti Association to explore opportunities
for emeriti involvement in student recruitment.
Advances
and Ongoing Programs Consistent with Strategy:
Many of the programs
and services within Student Affairs, Graduate Studies, the
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies and the various colleges
and professional schools are dedicated to recruiting, retaining
and graduating high achieving students and diverse student
populations. Program descriptions can be found at the websites
of these units. In addition, some tools created that advance
the strategy include:
Short Statement
of Plans for 2004-05:
- Discuss with
the appropriate campus committees, time-to-degree issues,
including goals as a campus or by discipline, course structure
(course sequencing, summer availability, minimum workload,
etc.), practices regarding students repeating classes, student
contracts, counseling/monitoring of student progress, financial
incentives vs. disincentives to graduate in four years and
other factors.
- Implement the
UC Eligibility and Admissions Study Group recommendations
related to freshmen admissions and selection.
- Commission
SARI to survey students who were offered Regents and other
prestigious UC Davis Scholarships but who declined to enroll.
Investigate their reasons for deciding not to choose UC
Davis. Also, survey students from first-generation attending
college, low-income students, students from low-performing
schools and other diverse communities.
- Address the
Emeriti Association on engagement of emeriti faculty in
student recruitment efforts (the Vice Chancellor of Student
Affairs has been invited by the Association to make a presentation
in Fall 2004).
- Work with faculty
and deans to enhance the “Why UCDavis” website
by providing the most current information on majors, faculty,
internships and post-graduate opportunities.
- Continue and
expand faculty involvement in recruiting high caliber graduate
students, such as the faculty-staffed graduate recruitment
committee in Math and Physical Sciences.
- Increase postings
and usage of the two campus websites (undergraduate and
graduate) for scholarships and fellowships.
- Explore ways
to increase participation of volunteers (staff, students,
faculty, emeriti faculty, alumni) in student recruitment.
- Identify ways
to increase campus support for mentoring and preparing students
to successfully compete for prestigious awards.
Evaluation
of Metrics:
- Alignment of
demographics of campus undergraduate student population
to better reflect the population of California
Using the demographics of the California population as
a benchmark may not be the best choice if we want to be
able to see the impact of our programs and policies. A
more relevant measure may be the “UC-eligible population”
for underrepresented populations, as reported on periodically
by the California Postsecondary Education Commission.
Another useful metric to track trends in a variety of
categories and to compare results between campuses is
UC systemwide admissions data on the number of applications
and enrollments of First-Generation College, Low Family
Income students, Students from Low-Performing Schools,
California Rural/Urban/Suburban Students, Underrepresented
Minorities, Eligibility in the Local Context and academic
preparation participants.
- Increase in
the number of high-achieving students enrolling at UC Davis
All of our undergraduate students are high-achieving
since they represent the top 12.5% of California high
school graduates, but to attract the best of the best,
we purchase a list from the College Board that enables
us to identify and recruit high achieving prospects (those
meeting Academic Scholarship Index criteria set by the
Academic Senate). To measure success in enrolling high-achieving
students, an Academic Profile report (produced by Undergraduate
Admissions) is a good source.
- Improvement
in competitiveness of financial support packages with other
peer institutions, with special emphasis on scholarships
and fellowships
A starting point for monitoring the competitiveness of
our financial support packages is the report prepared
by the Office of the President on Undergraduate and Graduate
Financial Aid. The report indicates the type and sources
of funds, the average award amount and the per capita
amount by UC campus. The campus may need to modify the
results to reflect the varying cost of attendance per
campus to have a more accurate analysis. This metric is
an area that needs further assessment. An additional benchmark
that compares UC Davis to other top institutions outside
the UC system should be developed.
- Increase in
rate of growth in overall recruitment of graduate students
in keeping with systemwide efforts.
The Office of Graduate Studies internally tracks information
on the number of applications received (by program, gender
and ethnicity) and the number admitted. The Office can
periodically report on progress made in attracting graduate
student applications and progress in increasing the rate
of acceptance from those offered admission.
- Increase in
the number of prestigious national and international awards
and fellowships received by UC Davis students
Last year, a UC Davis student received a Marshall Scholarship,
only one of three students who have received it in the
history of our campus. We would like more UC Davis students
to compete for such prestigious awards. We can measure
our progress in this goal by tracking the number of students
who apply for and who receive one of 15 select merit-based
scholarships and fellowships, including the Rhodes, Truman
and Strauss scholarships. A complete listing of appropriate
awards can be found at the Davis Honors Challenge website
(http://honors.ucdavis.edu/html/scholarships.html).
In addition, prestigious awards for graduate students,
such as the Fulbright, National Science Foundation, Rockefeller
Foundation and others should be measured and monitored.
- Reduction in
time-to-degree for all student populations
Statistics compiled by the Consortium for Student Retention
Data Exchange (CSRDE) and the Integrated Postsecondary
Education Data System (IPEDS) are useful for measuring
and comparing undergraduate time-to-degree rates. For
graduate students, the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED)
is a good measure.
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