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May 24, 2012

ISU OKs four-year degree guarantee

Sue Loughlin The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — Indiana State University has announced a four-year “graduation guarantee” for students enrolling this fall and beyond.

The guarantee assures eligible students, who must sign a contract, that if they live up to their responsibilities as outlined, they will be able to complete a bachelor’s degree in four years. If not, they will be able to take remaining courses tuition-free.

If it’s ISU’s mistake that keeps them from graduating in four years, “Then their tuition for any period beyond four years would be on us,” ISU President Dan Bradley said during a news conference Wednesday announcing the new Sycamore Graduation Guarantee.

The guarantee is part of ISU’s commitment to keeping college affordable for students, and will help ensure students a quicker start for their careers, officials say.

“The hope is that this will result in more students finishing in four years,” which in turn, will save students money, Bradley said. “The quickest and biggest impact we can have on the cost of an education is to shorten the timeline.”

The cost of going to school an extra year is close to $20,000, Bradley said. Students also lose out on income they would earn if they were out in the workforce.

ISU’s current four-year graduation rate is about 25 percent — and officials hope to see improvement with the new program. “We’re asking students to commit to four years and telling our faculty and staff that four years is important,” Bradley said.

The Graduation Guarantee, which is for first-time, full-time students, outlines the responsibilities of students and of the university that are necessary to achieve the goal of graduation in four years.

The program will be rolled out in June, during student orientation. The earliest that ISU would have to pay a student’s tuition under the guarantee would be 2016.

The guarantee isn’t just something that sounds good, Bradley said. It is a binding agreement between ISU and the student, and he expects there will be occasions where ISU must pick up the tab for its mistakes, such as if students can’t get a class they need to graduate.

“We think the guarantee is real in the sense that we have serious, verifiable responsibilities in here and if we’re not meeting them, the student will be able to hold us accountable,” Bradley said.

The guarantee applies to all programs of 128 semester hours or less.

Student requirements under the terms of the guarantee include:

• Meet with an adviser to develop a course plan.

• Declare and be admitted to a major by the start of the sophomore year.

• Complete 30 to 32 credit hours each year and meet all degree requirements.

• Monitor academic progress and notify advisers if unable to register for a required course.

• Apply for graduation by Oct. 1 of their senior year.

The university’s responsibilities include:

• Provide access to quality advising throughout a student’s time at ISU.

• Provide tools that enable students to monitor progress toward degree completion.

• Substitute a different course or independent study, when appropriate, to enable a student to graduate in four years.

• Pay tuition and mandatory fees for any additional required courses if a student, through no fault of their own, cannot finish in four years (and course substitution is not an option).

“I think it puts some pressure on us and some pressure on students in a fair way that ultimately should help us both meet our goals of getting students graduated in a shorter amount of time and more students graduated total,” Bradley said.

The program also should help with retention by keeping everyone focused on the target — which is graduation in four years, the president said.

Data shows that “the longer you take to get out of college, the less chance you have of finishing,” he said. “Students who drag it out five, six or seven years, there’s a lot of them out there that just don’t finish.”

The university will work with students who fall behind schedule due to extenuating circumstances, such as financial constraints or a change of majors.

The university also will provide students with an annual report of whether they are on track to graduate in four years and, if not, what steps they can take to get back on track.

“We plan to monitor this pretty closely,” Bradley said.

The expectation is that students, also, “are going to be more vigilant about monitoring their progress,” said Teresa Exline, special assistant to the president.

The university will need to automate its system to annually report to students where they stand and what they need to do to graduate in four years, especially if a lot of students participate, Bradley said. “That’s our big challenge over the next year.”

ISU expects about 2,500 new freshmen next fall.

There are opportunities for parent involvement as well. If students sign an authorization form (required by federal law), parents also will be able to monitor students’ progress, Exline said.

To learn more about the Sycamore Graduation Guarantee, go to www.indstate.edu/stayontrack

Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.

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