(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
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