Editorial: Lax admission policy

Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2003 | 8:53 a.m.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas has a special committee to hear appeals from prospective students who do not meet the normal admissions requirements. This is fair. Many students experience hardships while in high school that lower their grade point average. Fairness dictates that an appeal process be in place.

An audit, however, has revealed that 28 students with low grade point averages -- including nine athletes -- were admitted to the university in the 2000-2001 school year either despite the committee's rejection of their appeal or without ever ever having gone through the committee at all. Members of the Board of Regents were understandably upset when they learned that UNLV administrators granted those admissions on their own.

UNLV President Carol Harter said she was aware of the practice and did not consider it an abuse of power. Juanita Fain, vice president for administration at UNLV, explained said that the special admissions committee was viewed as being advisory. "We believed we had the latitude to make these exceptions," Fain said.

The regents were correct in ordering that administrators follow the standard admissions appeal process from now on. Allowing administrators to grant admissions appeals on their own, particularly when the Board of Regents is kept in the dark about the practice, invites the type of abuse the committee is supposed to prevent.