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Committee on Admissions
(Final - Information)

AD.04.01 2003-2004 Annual Report

The Committee on Admissions has met four times during the 2003-2004 academic year as of the drafting of this report; an additional meeting is scheduled for April 16.

Guests have included: Barbara Cicone, Admissions & Records Officer, Computer Science; Todd Nelson, Visiting UIUC Campus Manager, UI Integrate Student Systems Team; Karen York, Assistant to Head of Chemistry Department; Nora Few, Assistant Dean, Graduate College Administration; and Sally Mikel, Information Systems Management Specialist, Graduate College.

Admissions Report by Stan Henderson, Director, Admissions and Records

At the October meeting, Henderson presented the fall 2003 admissions report. UIUC enrollments were at a record 38,000+ students; that included a record 4,559 international students, 446 more graduate students than last year, a male/female ratio close to 1/1, and overall strong ethnic diversity in comparison with most of our peer group of universities. Incoming freshmen at the University display a strong academic profile with a mean ACT of 27.3.Graduate Admissions Discussions In November, the committee held a discussion relative to the many challenges to adapting to the new Banner system from the prospective of the Graduate College.

Barrera reported that there is an enormous competition to recruit international students, but there is a decline in applications mainly due to INS and SEVIS requirements; many students are going to Canada. Nelson pointed out that this is a learning year and encouraged committee members to sign up for training. He said that there are many obstacles and challenges to overcome with Banner, and 80% of the problems deal with implementation. Henderson reported that graduate applications are presently down fifteen percent from last year, whereas undergraduate applications are up by thirty-five percent. There is no such thing as a perfect implementation of a new integrated system; it is never a good process.

In December, the committee held a follow-up discussion regarding observations from graduate departments on graduate admissions processing reporting issues. Henderson started the discussion by giving an overview of recent graduate admissions difficulties resulting from the new Banner System. He noted that there have been some significant positive developments since the Admissions Committee met last month as he and Dean Richard Wheeler have been in contact with the Provost’s Office to head off potential issues.

Henderson reported that there has been a decline in graduate admissions, probably in part due to the new Banner system; the count is 4,685 this year opposed to 6,675 last year. Cicone remarked that there is definitely a decline in Computer Science stats; it seems that the new system has students confused and giving up on the application. Henderson noted that Josie Evans, Associate Registrar of Admissions and Records, has prepared a report on UI Integrate Banner and its effect on OAR. Ms.

Few pointed out that there are many departmental issues with the new system; she encouraged departments to inform the Steering Committee of any problems in order that they are included in the “big fix.”

Committee on Admissions

R. Linn Belford, Chair
Mark Arends
Paul Beck
Ryan Gass
Joseph Hinton
Liang Y. Liu
Ditlev Monrad
Candace Montgomery
Mark Nattier
John Nerone
Matthew Wheeler
Debe Williams
Weimo Zhu
Cecilio Barrera, ex officio
Stanley Henderson, ex officio
Marilyn Murphy Marshall, observer
Brian Rainer, ex officio
Patricia Swatfager-Haney, observer