By Justin Fenton
Enquirer staff writer

Northern Kentucky University adopted stricter admission requirements Wednesday that could cut its 2005 freshman enrollment by more than 10 percent, but school officials hope the new rules will boost sagging graduation rates and improve the school's reputation.

The Board of Regents unanimously approved the admission standards, which call for a minimum composite ACT score and a minimum grade-point average for the first time in the school's history. The changes are staggered over the next two years.

"Our goal is to have every student at the university succeed," President James Votruba said. "I see this as being the university's effort to ensure that students admitted here have the wherewithal to be successful."

The change in standards comes after years of discussion and a year after numerous committees took on the task of determining what standards to implement.

Northern Kentucky posted the lowest graduation rate of any of Kentucky's public universities in 2003.

It has a six-year rate of 33.3 percent - a drop of 4.5 percentage points from the previous year.

Currently, an incoming freshman is required to complete the Kentucky Pre-College Curriculum and have English, math and reading ACT subject scores of at least 18 out of a possible 36.

In addition to those standards, students will be required to have an ACT composite score of 19 in 2005 and a high school grade-point average of at least 2.0. Students who do not meet the ACT composite standard might qualify if they have a high school grade-point average of 3.0 or a class rank in the top 30 percent.

In fall 2006, the minimum ACT composite score will increase to 20.

The school predicts a loss of about 240 incoming freshmen and $1.3 million because of the change, but officials hope a combination of recruitment and transfer initiatives will eventually increase overall enrollment.

Nationally, between 2001 and spring 2004, 49 percent of high school graduates who took the ACT earned a composite score of 20 or below, according to the ACT Web site, www.act.org.

Each year, about 46 percent of NKU's incoming freshmen score less than an 18 on some portion or all of the ACT and must take a remedial course for which they earn no college credit.

Students who fail to meet one or two of the new standards will still have a chance to enroll at NKU through a new summer program called NKU Academy, which officials predict could attract 20 to 30 students initially. A previously announced dual-enrollment program with nearby Gateway Community and Technical College is also expected to help students transition.

"It allows us to focus much more on our mission, which is to be a four-year university," Votruba said. Students are pleased that their school's reputation could improve with higher standards.

"I don't want to see us charging students tuition who have a 4 percent chance of graduating," student regent Andrew Hixson said. "We're not closing the door, but students can't slack off and say, 'I can go to NKU.' "

Michael Tobergta, 24, a junior political science major, said he would not have been able to enroll at NKU under the new standards, but he thinks they're necessary.

"Hopefully, this will encourage students to do better in high school so they can be admitted. This'll definitely take away the stigma of us being a community college," he said.

Natalie Morales contributed to this report. E-mail jfenton@enquirer.com.