Correction: In the "University update in brief" portion of this story, the correct date for early winter break closure is Dec. 21. The text below also reflects this correction. The Mercury regrets this error.
UTD President David Daniel's broadly-focused State of Our University Address in the Conference Center Nov. 4. included details about a dip in the this year's freshman class SAT average, increasing retention rates and helping students graduate within four years.
This semester UTD implemented an assurance policy for freshman acceptance, Daniel said. The policy assured all students in the top fifteen percent of their graduating class admission to UTD. Fewer students on the high scoring spectrum of the SAT and more students with lower SAT scores were accepted this semester. As a result, UTD's average entrant SAT dropped from 1248 to 1225.
According to the president, Texas underperforms the nation's average four-year graduation rate. Furthermore UTD significantly underperforms in its four-year graduation rate, currently reported at 39.4 percent.
"Essentially what the data say is that our freshman class is far smarter than the average freshman class in America, but our four year graduation rate is about average," Daniel said.
Daniel said the freshman to sophomore retention rate is an important parameter used to assess and rank schools. He compared UTD's current 84 percent to elite university retention rates near 100 percent. The goal for 2017 is an 88 percent retention rate.
To achieve this goal Daniel said there are two key points. One, the university needs to assist students that are academically challenged and help them in the form of counseling or tutoring. The other point, important to Daniel, is increasing student involvement on campus.
"We have to create a wonderful environment here on campus," Daniel said. "One of the ways you do that is to have as many students as possible live on campus and get them as heavily involved as possible in activities on campus so that they build a family and a community that helps keep them in school."
Daniel presented a student enrollment growth diagram which graphed UTD's enrollment status from 2000 to 2009 with predictions up to the year 2017, currently UTD's enrollment has grown 3 percent on average each year, on track with expectations.
"We do not want explosive growth, the last thing I want is a 15 percent increase in enrollment on this campus one fall because we would have one heck of a time delivering quality instruction under those circumstances," Daniel said. "Neither do we want zero growth because we (could) not meet our strategic goals."
Dr. Daniel's address can be heard using the below widget:
University update in brief:
