SDSU Requirements Spell Out the Right Stuff

Truth in advertising--that is the idea behind tougher new admission expectations recently adopted by the California State University System. We are trying to tell prospective students what kind of preparation they need, based on our best judgment and experience. We are trying to be straight, to be honest, to tell them what we think it will take to succeed at San Diego State University and the other 18 CSU campuses.

The new admission requirements are the latest in a long series of tighter expectations of incoming freshmen dating back to 1960, when CSU limited enrollment to the top one-third of California high school graduates. In 1984, CSU added high school course expectations for admission, mandating that incoming freshmen must have completed four years of English and two years of math.

The newest admission expectations require that, as of 1988, freshmen entering SDSU and the other CSU campuses must have taken an additional year of high school math, a year of laboratory science, two years of a foreign language and a year of U.S. history and government. In addition, they must have completed at least one year of visual and performing arts and three electives in English, advanced math, social studies, history, laboratory science, agriculture or foreign language. As in the past, their grades and college entrance exams must place them in the top one-third of California public high school graduates.

In California, we have put a great deal of emphasis on access to higher education. We have not paid as much attention to what happens to the students once they enter the university. Currently about one-fourth of SDSU’s freshmen earn a degree within five years. The new standards are designed to help stem the tide of dropouts. We know that better preparation in high school will help more students succeed in college.

What we teach at SDSU today is what it will take to prepare students to work in the real world now, and in the next decades. It is not possible for us to teach our students adequately unless they arrive with fundamental knowledge of mathematics, communicative skills, history and social science. We have to assume our incoming students have that foundation. In four or five years, we cannot prepare students for tomorrow’s world of work and provide basic reading, writing and arithmetic as well. We cannot do it. It is time we give that message to prospective students, clearly.

Another message, which is perhaps even more important, is that if they do not have this foundation of basic knowledge it will be difficult to succeed in life. Better preparation is clearly now expected of students who come to us from the kindergarten through 12th-grade system than in previous years. But that is not because we as an institution are expecting more--it is because society is expecting more. We are society’s voice of expectation because we are the universities, and that’s one of the jobs of a university--to prepare the next generation. We are bearing the message of our post-technological society that citizens will be expected to know more about these important topics. That is a tough message. It comes from the tremendous technological advances this country has made in the past 40 years.

The CSU system is also giving a challenge to the K-12 system. We are telling them, system-to-system, that we have come to the conclusion, based on observations of performance, that the students who have not had the right exposure to the right courses have a poor chance of succeeding. We feel it is essential for the state and the K-12 system to expend whatever resources are necessary to provide this kind of preparation for their students, and for California’s citizens. We believe the state Legislature understands this, and we know state Schools Supt. Bill Honig understands it. Both are taking steps to improve the system. We know the K-12 system has long desired help.

There is concern that the tougher admission expectations discriminate against minorities. Some people voice concern that we are creating more barriers for minority students, harking back to old claims of insensitivity to minority students. I think such talk clouds the real issue. The primary reason for the failure of minority students, or any students, at the university level is that they have not been properly prepared in the K-12 system. This poor preparation has been tied to many issues--lack of funds, social pressures on the schools, etc. In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, we thought that if we poured enough money into special tutoring and remedial programs on campus, these poorly prepared students would make it. The evidence shows that was unrealistic. Some made it; most just flunked out. What a waste of human potential. We must do better, and the way to start is to tell the facts the way they really are. Students must be prepared.

At SDSU, we will monitor the new standards with particular attention to the numbers of minority students being admitted. Special attention will be paid to individual students as we move into this new era.

However, we believe strongly that admission to the university is not the only issue. We want minority students to have a reasonable chance of succeeding in our university and beyond. Minority students, or any students, who currently flunk out of college a year after admission because of poor preparation are no less disillusioned than the students who do not go to the university because they lack the proper preparation, and who then flunk in society.

The new admission expectations will help all our students. They will allow our faculty to start with the assumption of proper preparation, in order to maximize the students’ learning experience. They will send messages of expectation to community colleges and to K-12 schools, honestly reflecting society’s current and future demands. And, it is that honesty in the message that we are trying to stress.