LOOKING IN ON: HIGHER EDUCATION

By Charlotte Hsu (contact)

Friday, Oct. 5, 2007 | 7:31 a.m.

UNR snagged 10 National Merit Scholars this year - quintuple the number who chose Reno each of the past two years.

"We've already changed the trajectory," UNR President Milton Glick said of the new recruitment success .

Glick came to Nevada last year from Arizona State University, where as executive vice president and provost he helped increase the number of National Merit Scholars during his 15-year tenure from a handful to 500 .

ASU pursued top students the way most colleges go after athletes, Glick said. Recruiters spoke to families - instead of just to students - about the advantages of attending ASU.

That's the hands-on model Glick brought to Reno. Faculty members, deans and students have become more involved in recruitment, giving candidates a chance to learn more about life on campus and their chosen fields.

"It's not just a student affairs effort," he said. "It's an institutional effort. The full university has to engage."

Many of the best scholars plan on going to graduate school after college. For these students, a good education, not a prestigious name, is the priority, Glick said.

UNR may not be Harvard or Stanford, but surveys show that Reno students find their courses challenging, Glick said. The trick is to show top high school students that UNR is a credible option - a quality education with a low price tag.

Reno serenades National Merit Scholars with plump financial aid packages.

Recruiting takes time and money. So how to justify such a large financial and human investment in just a few recruits?

The answer, Glick says, is that the best students ask challenging questions and otherwise boost the level of education for classmates.

"The way I rationalize the extra attention you do give to top students," he said, "is to build the learning experience for all our students."

Local high school graduates who leave the state for college apparently are still interested in sticking fairly close to home.

Universities in Arizona, California and Utah drew the most attention from students thinking about ditching Nevada.

Forty-three percent of Clark County School District students pursue a four-year degree on graduating from high school.

According to Kim Boyle, director of guidance and counseling at the district, the top 10 institutions of higher education that appeal to students are: UNLV, UNR, UCLA, Arizona State, University of Southern California, Brigham Young University, College of Southern Nevada, Southern Utah University, UC San Diego and UC Berkeley.

The top 10 list is based on reports tracking which colleges and universities receive ACT or SAT test scores from district students interested in attending their institutions.

Nevada State College's student newspaper has published off and on during the five years the school's been open.

The Scorpion's Tale returned to campus in May after a one-year hiatus, and now, a faculty adviser and student editors are hoping to make publication a regular thing.

The paper's October edition - this year's first - was out this week, with a profile of a globe-trotting faculty member and stories on subjects such as college enrollment and a new project on the Strip. Also included: an event s calendar and list of nearby eateries.

Advis er Peter La Chapelle and Editor in Chief Deanna Rilling say the primary goal is to build a sense of community on a commuter campus.

"What the student newspaper does is it serves as a sort of place where everyone can come and see what's going on around campus," he said.

The college is so new that "even Henderson residents have no idea we're out here," Rilling said. "We hoped (the paper) would make our college more legitimate and get the word out that we're here."

The paper is scheduled to publish three times a semester, or roughly monthly during the school year. The student government, college relations department and liberal arts and sciences school fund the paper, which has a budget of about $9,500.

Students taking a journalism class with La Chapelle, who worked for four years at the Bakersfield Californian, contribute to The Scorpion's Tale. Other members of the campus community also may submit work.