SOUTHEAST `MODERATELY SELECTIVE'

Southeast Missouri State University would be a "moderately selective" institution with a goal of having 55 percent of its first-time, full-time freshmen graduate within six years, under a higher education plan unveiled recently.

A plan by the Task Force on Critical Choices for Higher Education calls for classifying Missouri's public colleges and universities on the strength of their admission requirements.

There would be four categories: highly selective, selective, moderately selective and open-enrollment.

Community colleges by necessity would have open enrollment, basically admitting anyone with a high school diploma or its equivalent, the task force said.

John Lichtenegger of Jackson, who chaired the task force, said the main criteria in classifying schools would be high school class rank and how a student scored on ACT or SAT tests.

Essentially, a highly selective school would admit only the top 30 percent of students. Selective institutions would admit the top 40 to 45 percent of students, while moderately selective institutions would enroll students that academically are in the top 60 percent, Lichtenegger said.

Under the plan, 75 percent of first-time, full-time, degree-seeking freshmen would be expected to graduate within six years from a highly selective institution.

A selective institution would be expected to graduate 65 percent of its freshmen within six years, a moderately selective institution, 55 percent, and an open-enrollment school, 45 percent.

At community colleges, 25 percent of the freshmen students would be expected to graduate within three years, under the plan.

Lichtenegger said that currently no public college or university would qualify as a highly selective school in Missouri.

"Success rates" for the schools would be determined on the basis of how the school was classified in terms of its admission standards.

The task force said those rates would be determined on the basis of how many first-time, full-time, degree-seeking freshmen complete 24 or more credit hours with a cumulative grade point average of 2.0 or better by the end of their first academic year.

Under the plan, highly selective institutions would be expected to have a 90 percent success rate; selective institutions, 85 percent; moderately selective schools, 75 percent; and open-enrollment schools, 70 percent.

"We want to know how many of these students are flunking out of these institutions," said Lichtenegger.