Unqualified
(Continued from Page 1) transfer rate is not
ding a community college for a year. as a high school
Other back door students boycott choose geology or:
summer and winter entrance so they 50 or 60 percent t
can enroll along with high school frien- said. "You come in
ds as fall freshman. option of 30 depart
DURING THE past two years, an in- they have."
crease in the number of applicants to But in any case, E
the University has driven up LSA ad- at least some of th
mission standards from a 3.1 or 3.2 GPA result of backdoorir
to a 3.3 or 3.4 GPA. "I think (back
As a result, an increasing number of pened. I don't know
prospective students are being told they is," he said.
just don't qualify for admission into WHY DO student
LSA. education and natu
But no one knows how many of these as backdoors?
students are taking no for an answer. In phys-ed ther
"WE'VE HAD incidents where admissions standar
students are in a program just to get to any cut-offs. It's w
Michigan," Erickson said. "There's can give us," Ed
absolutely no reason for a student to that the school si
choose a program they don't have an in- missions office for
terest in." freshman class."
"I would say any student who con- The philosophyc
templated doing this would be in for a best 80 students you
great deal of grief," Erickson said. characterizes the
But according to John Bassett, ship with admissior
natural resources school associate DURING THE
dean, students aren't being deterred by students are judge
stern warnings like Erickson's. GPA received in
"I'd say 45 of our 80 freshman (tran- grade academic cl
sferred) if I had to make a guess," According toI
Bassett said. The majority of these generally looks for
students who made up the freshman school GPA of 2.5.]
class of 1984 transferred because they of about 3.3 or 3.4
were using natural resources as a back prep background.
door into LSA, he added. "I'm guessing, b
"They can't get into the lit. school SATs, we're just
because the lit. school has so many ap- around 900 there ab
plicants who far exceed the minimum Edington said.
standards of the school," Bassett said. "I WOULD think
"They're told the School of Natural (SAT) would desc
Resources is still open." freshman) class."
"There's no question they have used According to
us . . . as a way to get into the Univer- generally looks fo
sity," he said. "We've been used (as a about 1070 or 1130
back door). You tell me how to prevent 1600.
it." In natural resou
students enter 'U'
unusually high. "If
senior you had to
English, you'd have
transfer," Edington
to LSA, you have an
ments, or whatever
Edington admits that
ese transfers are the
ng.
dooring) has hap-
, to what extent that
s single out physical
ral resources for use
e are no minimum
rds. "We don't have
rhatever admissions
ington said, adding
imply asks the ad-
students to fill its
of "Just get us the
can get us," he said
division's relation-
ns.
admissions process,
d on the high school
tenth and eleventh
asses.
Erickson, phys-ed
students with a high
LSA looks for a GPA
and a strong college
but my guess is that
under 900 or right
bouts. I'm guessing,"
a 2.7 (GPA), 850-900
cribe our (incoming
Erickson, LSA
or an SAT score of
. A perfect score is
urces, students with
oints of 3.0 are likely
ause the school's ap-
mall. There are sim-
students from which
CAROLINE SAID she doesn't regret
her decision to back door her way into
the University.
"I feel I should have my opportunity
to get the best education I can.
"I don't feel bad about (backdooring)
because just as I'm cheating someone
out of a school they want to be in, I'm
being cheated of the opportunity to suc-
ceed here," she said.
"I CAN'T be so altruistic and cheat
myself out of my education."
Despite Caroline's reasoning,
Erickson maintains that back door
students are indeed cheating others of a
chance to succeed in physical education
or natural resources.
"A student who goes into a program
simply to get into that institution is
denying another student," Erickson
said. "They are deliberately excluding
another student" who wants to be in
that program.
IN ADDITION, Bassett said back
door students do not usually take
classwork seriously. "They don't work
because they anticipate they're going to
be transferring out."
"I've been told by the instructor (of
the required introductory natural
resources class) that some of the
students don't pay any attention (in
class)," he said.
Harry Morten, who te
tion of the class, refused
the situation.
NATURAL RESOU
Charles Olson, who hasl
introductory class, agr
students in the course d
unmotivated.
"There's no question
ferences in motivation
said. However, he adde
discouraged by studen
don't want to be in the s
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 24, 1985- Page 5
through back door
aches one sec- dooring) is bad because a lot of people students are enrolling in physica
to comment on like me had too much fun in high education or natural resources as a
school," John said. "Shoot, if anybody back door.
1RCE S Prof. can get in here and do the work, why not "I suspect it's not a rampan
lectured to the be here," he said. problem. Whether you want to call it a
eed that some "Getting into the University is just problem at all is a question."
Jo indeed seem like a job. If you can get into a cor- "The proof of the pudding is are these
poration, you're golden." kids that transfer going out of here with
lees, are don But the question on the minds of some successful degrees?" he said, adding
levels," Olson is whether or not back door students "If students enrolling into a unit purely
d that he is not should even be allowed to enter the as a gimmick to get into the University,
its who not r ulven be alle t e. as o geally a fair thing to do."
chool Instead. University in the first place. " .tat's not-really a fai r thn odo.
I
t
a
,e
h
g
Y
.o
UVILW1I VV 1 101G1V . 11 Q ,
he said, he focuses his energies on those
who want to learn.
Sometimes, Olson said he is able to
interest back door students in natural
resources.
JOHN, who would speak only on the
condition that his real name not be
used, is one of those students.
"I had too much fun in high school
and you can't get into Michigan
engineering school with what I had," he
said. "I applied to LSA and they turned
me down."
After being turned down by LSA,
John applied to the School of Natural
Resources with the intention of tran-
sferring into LSA. And unlike most
back door students, John decided to
stay in the school.
"I PERSONALLY don't think (back
BILLY FRYE, vice president for
academic affairs and University
provost, said he isn't sure whether
IT WORKS out to be unfair to those
who took 'no' as an answer," Holbrook
said.
According to Eugene Nissen,
assistant LSA dean for student
academic affairs, back door students
See STUDENTS, Page 8
(Arb~~l ~ c&~,' e,'ce 6o 2C - 6 1- czeh'
"THEY DO anything they can to get
into the University. They obviously see
nothing wrong with it."
The school is, however, taking some
steps to cut down on the number of
students using natural resources as a
back door, Bassett said. And although
he would not detail the plan, he said the
school's new freshman curriculum
which requires calculus and chemistry
courses is helping to ease backdooring.
Administrators in the University's of-
fice for Academic Affairs say they are
unaware of any such plans.
THE SITUATION Bassett described
is similar to that in the Division of
Physical Education where program
chair Dee Edington estimates that half
of the members of 1984's freshman
class will transfer out of the program
by the time they are juniors.
Edington, however, said that this
high school grade p
to be admitted bec
plicant pool is so sn
ply fewer qualified
to choose.
6 wayl
May s
a timeless symbol of your achievements
Juniors - Seniors!
3- 1 nEMnurtum
ROBERT LEE HUSAK
APRIL 18, 1985
Memorial Rememberance
at
The Michigan League
Hussy Room 3 p.m.
THURSDAY, APRIL 25
9'0o 2P m-
ltdAo'st'- 44urcA of Chri sct;'ft
/3 4)4Ms'(~ia
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Time: 11:00 to 4:00
Place: Michigan Union Bookstore
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M~iyne State University
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