Greater challenge faces freshman candidates

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Towson University President Robert Caret returned to TU in 2003 after an eight-year stint as president of San Jose State University in California. Prior to that, Caret served Towson University for 21 years as a faculty member, dean and provost.

Question: Towson receives thousand of applicants for about 2,500 spots in the freshman class. How does that affect admission?

Answer: This year, we expect about 13,000 freshman applicants. Obviously, when you were working with that many students, you have what I call the autopilot admission — the ones who have a [certain] SAT [score] and GPA who are just going to get it.

The bottom line is, at the end of this process, you are still taking in a cohort of students who have roughly a 3.5-plus GPA and who are approaching an 1,100 SAT.

That’s no longer your typical accessible public university.

It’s tough on the public, and more and more of [state institutions] are becoming like that.

Q: Where does an average high school student fit in?

A: It’s getting harder and harder for the average student to find a home. I think community colleges will be playing a much larger role, as they do in some other states like California.

We need to use community colleges more effectively, and we need to work with students so they understand there is a wide range of options.

There isn’t just the one campus. At the moment, there are underutilized campuses [in the University System of Maryland].

Q: Towson trains teachers and nurses, and both professions are facing critical shortages in Maryland. Do you plan to increase staff and students for the teaching and nursing programs?

A: It’s a huge part of our mission. Eighty percent of our students stay in Maryland [after graduation]. We made an explicit goal: When I arrived back here four years ago, I wanted to double the number of [teaching students].

We are approaching that, and I think we are 50 [percent] or 60 percent larger than we were four years ago.

Nursing, within the next four years, will increase by 50 percent. It’s much more difficult to do — it’s much more expensive, and it’s harder to get faculty.

Q: Towson has a reputation of being a commuter school. How many people live on campus? Are you increasing housing?

A: We have roughly 4,200 students I consider residential — about 30 percent of our full-time undergraduates.

As we grow, it will be hard to increase, but we are adding about 2,000 beds over the next six years.

Q: What are you doing to improve safety on campus?

A: Safety is a huge concern. We are like a little city. If you add faculty and staff, you are looking at roughly 23,000 people on the campus every day.

We have very much beefed up security in our residence halls. There is staff [in the residence halls] 24 hours a day.

There are dozens and dozens of security cameras around campus, and we’ve hired private security guards for the perimeter areas around campus.

We have smaller crimes — minor burglaries — but nothing outside the norm for the size of our campus.

mmcilroy@baltimoreexaminer.com

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