Poll: Most Nevadans support tougher college admission standards

Associated Press

Saturday, Oct. 29, 2005 | 7:42 a.m.

LAS VEGAS - Most Nevadans support raising the grade-point-average required for college admission to 3.0 or higher, according to a newspaper poll.

Fifty-two percent of 625 voters surveyed statewide for the Las Vegas Review-Journal supported the proposal, while 34 percent opposed it. The rest were undecided.

"I'm delighted with 52 percent in support," said Jim Rogers, university system chancellor and a proposal supporter. "If we did a little politicking, I think we could get that number up."

The Board of Regents is expected to debate the issue in December.

Carol Harter, president of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has said she wants to raise the GPA requirement three years ahead of schedule in an effort to boost the school's national ranking.

She wants regents to up the GPA requirement for high school graduates to 3.0 by fall 2007 - a change that University of Nevada, Reno officials said they're considering supporting.

Currently, students must have at least a 2.5 GPA to be admitted to UNLV or UNR. Regents have approved raising the standard to 2.75 by fall 2006 and 3.0 in 2010.

Agustin Orci, Clark County School District superintendent who oversees instruction, said the proposal concerns him.

He and other school officials are struggling to raise the number of college-bound students - an area in which Nevada historically lags behind most other states.

"I would support it if the university system made sure that students who did not meet that critera would have assistance in the community college system," Orci said.

Regents must be cautious about creating an exclusionary system that denies opportunities to young people seeking to better themselves, Orci added.

Tom Rodriguez, who oversees diversity and affirmative action issues for the Clark County district, said he's concerned the proposal would diminish minority enrollment in the universities.

"If any one of them could explain to me how the raising of admission standards was going to increase minority students going to college ... I could support that," he said. "How could they argue it was not an elitist or discriminatory action?"

The poll also found that 48 percent of Nevadans surveyed favored a plan allowing professionals and college graduates to be hired as teachers, even though they lack required education courses.

Forty-one percent were opposed to the idea, which is designed to help address the public school teacher shortage.

The statewide poll was conducted Oct. 21 through Monday by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington, D.C. It had a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com

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