RUSSELL EXPECTS MU ENROLLMENT INCREASES

SIKESTON -- University of Missouri System President George Russell said Thursday that higher admissions standards will eventually increase enrollment in the University of Missouri system.

Russell was in Sikeston Thursday to explain more stringent freshman admissions requirements that will be implemented throughout the four-campus University of Missouri system in 1997.

The four campuses are in Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla and St. Louis.

Russell, a native of the Sikeston area, said he believes students prefer to be challenged and that the higher standards will make the university more attractive to the best students coming out of high school.

"When you set standards and students want to measure up to them, you'll have more students wanting to go there than anywhere else," Russell said.

"I'm concerned in this country about our inability to challenge students," he added. "If you do, I know they will respond, and they'll do very well."

New requirements in science, math, social studies and foreign language recently were approved by the university curators.

Effective in 1997, entering freshmen will have completed four units each of English and math, three units each of science and social studies, two units of foreign language, and a unit of fine arts.

Russell said it's important for higher education to adapt to the new global competition in economics. He said students in the United States now rank below those in other developed nations in the areas of science and math.

Also, students now in college who completed a high school curriculum equivalent to the new standards are more successful than other students and more likely to earn a degree, Russell said.

"Kids that have the core curriculum we're looking at have a very high degree of success," he said. "Currently our probability for success for incoming freshmen is about 50-50 whether they'll pass of fail. We're increasing that probability for passing to 60 percent.

"By waiting until 1997, we think Missouri high schools will be able to attain the higher standards."

But exceptions to the higher admissions standards will be allowed, Russell said.

"Up to 10 percent of the freshman class will consist of students who fall short of these standards," he said. "We're not going to be inflexible."

The higher standards help ensure that students are adequately equipped for college, show parents their money is being well spent and help the state by keeping Missouri's brightest high school students here, Russell said.

He said it's clear higher education won't be improved simply by spending more money. Along with the higher admissions standards for freshmen, the system also will include other budget and personnel cuts to assure efficiency, the president explained.

"We're now trying to take our destiny in our own hands," he said. "Our five-year plan will generate and redirect an additional $125 million. The only budget cuts will come in administration, and the campus budgets will increase.

"We'll not go to the General Assembly and ask for huge appropriations for infrastructure improvements. What we will do is go to them and say, `Do you now want to make a fine university into one of the great institutions of this nation?'"

In addition to higher admissions standards, the UM system also will require students to pay one-third of educational costs in the system.

Asked if tuition increases would deny opportunities for talented but poor students, Russell said 20 percent of assessed fees will be earmarked for university-funded financial aid.

Russell said if UM is successful in its reforms, voters might be more receptive to a tax increase for education in contrast to last year's Proposition B education package, which was defeated by a 2 to 1 margin.

"We have no call to ask for your dollars unless it's well spent," he said. "We deserve to give you the best measure of return for what is put in.

"Then I think it's fair for us to come and ask for help to make this one of the finest institutions in the nation. In 1934, Missouri was one of the top 25 universities in the United States. There's no reason we shouldn't be there again."