CSU admissions placing value on talent

By TREVOR HUGHES, COLORADOAN.COM, DECEMBER 12, 2010

CSU is developing a new system to admit prospective student athletes and musicians with "exceptional talent" but who otherwise might not get in due to low grades or test scores.

Colorado State University President Tony Frank created the panel following a dispute this summer between admissions and athletics officials over eight prospective student athletes who were rejected because of their academic qualifications. Athletic Director Paul Kowalczyk appealed to Frank, who overruled the admissions decision and accepted the students.

"There are lot of things a student can bring to a university that can't be measured on a numerical scale," said Christine Susemihl, CSU's senior associate athletic director for internal operations. "Kids are more than just their test score, just their GPA. But on the other hand, we don't want to dilute the standards of the university, and we don't want to bring in kids who don't have a chance to be successful academically."

The panel, which is still being created, formalizes what had been a series of informal conversations between athletics officials and their counterparts in admissions. The process changed as new administrators were hired and CSU adopted a "holistic" admissions approach that gave officials more flexibility but also made the process more subjective in deciding how much things like leadership and athletic success should count toward admission.

Under the old system, any student meeting a minimum numerical score would be admitted and activities such as sports, band or volunteering would have been counted toward that point total.

Because CSU has capacity in its classrooms and residence halls, students admitted by the panel would not take the place of a more academically qualified student. Instead, those seats would have been empty.

The University of Illinois last year was rocked by the revelation that officials there kept lists of students sponsored by trustees, legislators and high-ranking administrators. Students on those lists got preferential treatment and, in some cases, were admitted despite subpar credentials, according to the Chicago Tribune's report, called "Clout Goes to College." The newspaper said the students admitted through the "shadow" process sometimes took seats that would have otherwise gone to students with higher academic marks.

The panel's members are Ann Gill, dean of the College of Liberal Arts; University Distinguished Professor and philosopher Bernie Rollins; and University Distinguished Teaching Scholar Rich Feller, a professor of counseling and career development. Frank created the three-member panel after surveying comparable universities, and he noted that all of the students covered by the new process would still have to be NCAA-qualified to play sports. He said CSU is nothing like the University of Illinois, where he earned his veterinary degree.

"We don't want to say 'give me your speed in the 100 and we'll forget about your ACT score,' " Frank said.

On the other hand, Frank said a talented athlete could help energize a team, reverse a losing season and earn the university exposure, publicity and alumni donations it might not otherwise get. "They add something to the overall milieu of the campus community," he said.

CSU's student athletes have a 67 percent graduation rate after four years, compared with 63 percent in four years for the overall student body. And as a whole, CSU's student athletes have a cumulative GPA of 2.96, compared to 2.93 for the entire student body.

Susemihl said those statistics prove that CSU athletics makes responsible recommendations for admission. The university could be sanctioned if student athletes fail to succeed academically.

"I think that the university always wants talented students. And talent can take a variety of different shapes," Susemihl said.

For student athletes admitted under the new process, Provost Rick Miranda will track how they do and report back to Frank annually.

"I'm persuaded that these students have a reasonable chance of being successful and, if I err in these sorts of decisions, I want to err on the side of giving a young man or a woman a chance," Frank wrote in admitting the eight students this summer.