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News

Days of top 10 percent rule may be done

UH officials say that if passed, legislation would have little effect on UH admissions

By Tina Marie Macias
Senior Staff Writer

Texas high school students graduating in the top 10 percent of their class would no longer have guaranteed admission to Texas state universities under proposed state legislation.

State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, filed a bill Tuesday to repeal the top 10 percent law, and Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, submitted a proposal that would keep the 10 percent rule but require students admitted under it to take state recommended or advanced high school programs.

"It's not an issue for us right now," UH's Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management Ed Apodaca said. "We have automatic admission for the top 20 percent."

The UH System Board of Regents proposed a change in UH admissions requirements last week that would give students graduating in the top 20 percent of their classes automatic admission to the University, Apodaca said.

So far, Apodaca said the 10 percent law has only been a problem for The University of Texas at Austin.

"Texas A&M-College Station has a little bit of a problem, but theirs is not as profound as Austin's situation," Apodaca said.

At UH, about 22 percent of new freshmen graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, Apodaca said. At UT, it's 65 percent.

Augustine Garza, deputy director of admissions at UT, said the top 10 percent rule was created in 1997 to counter the effects of the Hopwood decision, which ended affirmative action in Texas public college admissions.

In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Texas schools may use race as one of many admissions factors, but proponents of the 10 percent rule say it's a success because it results in more racial and geographic diversity in state schools.

"We have seen an increase in the number of minority students entering this university ... it has done what the lawmakers wanted it to do," Garza said. "At the same time, it has provided a large number of applicants to us, much larger than we might have anticipated so soon, and therein is the issue."

The driving force behind changing the law is that some state lawmakers think it's unfair for students in competitive high schools taking difficult classes to compete against students in small schools where classes might not be as challenging, Garza said.

But a recent analysis of top 10 percent and non-top 10 percent students at UT between 1996 and 2003 shows academic performance hasn't suffered since the law was put in place.

"There hasn't been that much difference, except for the fact that the top 10 percenters do outperform everybody else," Garza said. "That's a very important point -- we're not compromising our admission process by taking these top 10 percent students, because they do perform well."

Among the proposals to modify the 10 percent rule is a suggestion from UT President Larry R. Faulkner that UT's automatic admissions be limited to 50 to 60 percent of the freshman class.

A proposal from state Rep. Tony Goolsby, R-Dallas, would restrict automatic admission to the top 5 percent of high school graduates, but Garza said that could decrease the number of students automatically admitted to UT to less than 50 percent.

At UH, there's no official stance and no real comment.

"That's a public policy issue to be decided by the legislature," Vice President for Governmental Relations Grover Campbell said.
 

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