Considering the admissions requirement of standardized testing, faculty senators urged President Scott Green to temporarily waive the requirement at Tuesday’s meeting.
Due to the pandemic, high school students were having difficulties accessing testing, leading to an emergency order in April of 2022 to waive the testing requirement. Enacted by Green, the order was set to end in Spring 2024.
While testing access has returned to normal, faculty questioned the overall merit of standardized testing at a previous senate meeting. They hope to reinstate an updated version of the emergency order. The order would last from Fall 2024 to Spring 2025 with most details remaining the same.
The senate would use this time to collect more data, look at what other universities are doing and see how test scores are being used by college ranking systems.
Applicants would be evaluated by GPA instead, and a placement test would measure their abilities.
College ranking systems have traditionally used ACT and SAT scores, according to the resolution.
“Presently, ranking systems are not taking into account (standardized testing) scores, but it’s unclear what the permanent status will be,” the resolution said.
An established 2.6 GPA minimum would allow students admission. Students with a 2.3-2.59 GPA would instead be admitted to the Vandal Gateway Program.
Haadiya Tariq can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @haadiyatariq