Kansas University’s relatively low admissions requirements don’t help in the prestige department.

“All you have to do is have a ‘C’ average in high school to get into KU,” KU Provost Richard Lariviere said. “That’s not much of a distinction. It’s really doing harm to the state and the region.”

But changing KU’s admissions requirements – something Lariviere has been chatting about a lot these days – may not be easy.

The bar is set by state law, and some say focusing on an issue that potentially rubs with the state’s long-held traditions won’t be easy.

Incoming freshmen from a Kansas school are required to meet one of the following:

¢ An ACT score of at least 21 out of a possible 36 or SAT score of 980 out of a possible 1600.

¢ A grade-point average of at least 2.0.

¢ Rank in the top one-third of high school graduating class.

“It wasn’t hard at all,” KU senior Lucas Weber said of getting into KU as an in-state student. “The requirements were pretty low.”

U.S. News and World Report magazine’s 2007 rankings included ratings for schools based on their selectivity.

KU ranked among the lowest when compared with other Big 12 schools. It tied with the University of Colorado-Boulder and was only better than Iowa State University. Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, both tier 3 schools, were not ranked for their selectivity. Kansas State ranked just slightly better. The University of Texas ranked highest in the Big 12 for its selectivity.

The rankings were based on standardized test scores, proportion of enrolled students who graduated in the top 10 percent and top 25 percent of their high school classes, and the acceptance rate.

The basic admissions requirements are the same at all Kansas Regents institutions. The state in 1996 passed a qualified admissions law – setting the new bar for students effective in 2001. The measure also left room for 10 percent of each school’s freshman class to be admitted without meeting those standards. The exemptions are only for Kansas residents.

The qualified admissions law came only after years of debate. Since 1915, Kansas schools had offered open admission to high school graduates. Parting from that tradition wasn’t easy.

Betty Jo Charlton, a Democratic legislator from Lawrence from 1980 to 1994, recalled the debate.

She said House representatives from western Kansas were representing their rural constituents.

“They think that the people at the Regents schools and particularly KU are a bunch of left-wing, liberal snobs, and they felt that this was legislating against the interests of their kids,” she said. “So they were being very stubborn about voting for it.”

State Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, said he anticipates that some of the old arguments would arise again if the idea to change KU’s admissions moves forward.

“There were a large number of legislators who believed that every Kansas student, because their parents are taxpayers, should be permitted to go to school,” Sloan said. “It was a very strong sentiment/argument when we debated qualified admissions. I would suspect that many legislators – even though we’ve had a significant turnover – will still have that populist perspective.”

Regent Dick Bond said such a proposal likely would meet some resistance, and KU would have to do a lot of educating on the issue.

“There are going to be critics who don’t really understand, who are going to yell things like elitism,” he said. “But many other states have this exact thing that KU is suggesting. This is not anything new that Lariviere is talking about it.”

Lariviere has discussed a “holistic admissions” plan. In such a plan, KU would look beyond the typical test scores, class rank and grades to a student’s entire file, Lariviere said.

He said the university has no plans right now and is simply talking about the issue.

“Implementing any kind of fundamental change … at an institution as complicated as KU requires extensive examination in order to avoid unpleasant and unanticipated consequences,” he said.