A boon for college enrollment

Jeffrey Libby

Friday, Aug. 25, 2000 | 11:40 a.m.

The new Millennium Scholarship program is driving record numbers of high school graduates to enroll at Nevada's state colleges and universities.

Numbers remain preliminary as freshmen continue to register for fall classes, but the $7.5 million program appears to be a first step toward the state shaking a long-held, last-place national ranking for sending high schoolers on to higher education.

More than 7,000 high school seniors qualified for the scholarship in June by graduating with a 3.0 grade point average, and educators expect just more than half to take the state up on its offer of as much as $10,000 for tuition over an eight-year window of eligibility.

The funding for the program comes from a percentage of the state's $1.2 billion share of tobacco settlement money, to be doled out over the next 25 years. State officials say the scholarship program could cost as much as $25 million annually as enrollments compound.

"This helps mostly those people who come from lower- and middle-income households," said Gov. Kenny Guinn, who acted as the main lobbying force for the program. "But there's many people who get help from this, from all walks of life. It helps kids go to school, to stay here, and then become part of our workforce."

A better-educated workforce, as Guinn sees it, should help the state meet its long-term goal of attracting more high-tech businesses and establishing a more diversified economy.

In the meantime Nevada will have the opportunity to dig itself out of the cellar. Nevada currently ranks first in the nation for high school dropouts, with one of every four seniors failing to graduate. In 1996 that meant out of 14,143 high school seniors, just 10,374 graduated. And just 37 percent of those that managed to turn the tassel -- 3,838 students -- went on to college. By comparison, the rest of the nation managed to graduate 92 percent of high school seniors and send 67 percent of those graduates on to college.

"We don't have a tradition in Nevada of our students coming from parents who've already been to college. Many are first generation," said Carol Ort, assistant vice president for academic affairs at the University of Nevada, Reno.

But that may change soon. It appears that the scholarship is not only giving students the financial resources to continue on to college, but is also changing perceptions about who is welcome inside the ivory towers.

Edwin Serrano, an immigrant from El Salvador, grew up in Las Vegas thinking of college as a place for other people, he says. He never saw any point in trying during his high school classes.

But on Sept. 5, his stepdaughter, 18-year-old Johana Eugarrios, will show up for freshman classes at the Community College of Southern Nevada. A Millennium Scholar, she will enroll in classes tuition-free.

"I didn't believe in scholarships before," said Serrano, who runs a pair of beauty salons with his wife, Miriam. "I thought it was so difficult to get them. But now I do."

So, too, do state administrators of higher education who in past weeks have been working overtime to provide the added crush of Millennium Scholars with enough classes, teachers, food and beds.

"When you think about the potential here it's both exciting and scary," said Juanita Fain, vice president for administration at UNLV. "If we got up to the national average (for sending high school graduates to college), we'd be carting students in on top of each other."

Shannon Ellis, vice president of student services at UNR, says she has already seen significant gains. The university's freshman admissions are up 23 percent as of Aug. 15.

"I think every school has underestimated the impact of the scholarship," Ellis said. "We thought we would have large numbers, but every projection has already been exceeded."

UNR initially expected to attract 1,200 Millennium Scholars, but by late last week Ellis estimated 1,400 had enrolled. Residence halls reached capacity in April, rather than the usual June. A new dormitory with 259 beds is full. And new introductory sections for the expanding freshman rolls include 13 in math, 10 for English and four in the sciences.

Between 1996 and 1998, according to university records, freshman rolls increased about 5 percent each year, from 1,224 to 1,347. Overall the school's enrollment has been growing by 3 percent a year. With the freshman class admissions already pushing a 23 percent increase this year alone, preliminary numbers indicate that the scholarship could be a significant factor in doubling the rate of increase in enrollments.

UNLV, the fastest-growing institution in the nation, reports similar numbers. Already experiencing an annual overall growth of from 5 to 6 percent, university officials said freshman admissions are up 19 percent this fall. By Sept. 1, 2,200 freshman are expected to have enrolled, up from 1,841 last year. President Carol Harter estimates that 1,400 of this year's students will be Millennium Scholars.

The new program is already affecting enrollments in some neighboring states.

Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, has seen erratic enrollments over the past three years, but according to statistician Janet Rex, about 213 freshman Nevadans have enrolled each year. As of Tuesday, however, with enrollment due to close in early September, just 141 Nevadans were enrolled, a potential drop of 33 percent.

At Southern Utah University in Cedar City, where about 100 Nevadans have enrolled each year going back to 1995, figures may have taken a slight dip. But Mark Barton, assistant vice president of student services, declined to give any hard numbers before enrollments stabilize in mid-September.

"We know for a fact the Millennium Scholarship is having an effect," he said. "We have lost some very top students."

Barton worked with the applicants personally, he said, and he felt their decision turned on a difference in financial aid.

At Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, figures remain relatively flat. Between 1999 and 1996, an average of 23 freshman Nevadans enrolled each year. Administrators said they expect 20 this year.

Administrators at the Community College of Southern Nevada are uncertain how the new scholarship program is going to affect enrollment.

As of Wednesday, CCSN had enrolled 750 Millennium Scholars of a freshman total of 2,062 full and part-time students. That figure is down significantly from the 2,890 enrolled last year, although the college will continue to enroll students through Sept. 13.

John Bierce, a statistician at CCSN said educators are watching to see if the scholarship diverts students from the community colleges to the universities. But full-time students have increased proportionately, and educators say they are pleased by that trend.

"We are getting top, top-notch students," said John Kinkella, dean of counseling at CCSN. "We enrolled two valedictorians from a couple of high schools. What (the scholarship) has done is, it's encouraged top-notch students to stay in the state."

Eugarrios is one of those students. Having turned down a scholarship to UCLA, she comes to CCSN from a magnet school for the arts. She has the distinction of being the first in her family to go to college.

"In order to be a successful person, you must think of yourself as successful," said Eugarrios, who will be working part-time as a stage technician at Bellagio hotel-casino and at a Victoria's Secret store while she takes classes. "If you don't have a vision, what are you going to build with?"

Guinn, who went through college on an athletic scholarship, appears to be building on his own vision.

"I always dreamed of a university that gave as many academic scholarships with room, board, books and tuition, as it did for athletic scholarships. But since we couldn't pull that off, we did better than that," Guinn said. "It's a magic program. I get letters every day."

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