Anchorage Daily News

The University of Alaska Anchorage was only a mile from Rachael Bellomy's high school but it may as well have been a thousand.

Click to enlarge

Story tools

Comments

E-mail a friend

Print

Digg this

Seed Newsvine

Send link via AIM

Font size : A | A | A

"It was just too much for me; I was overwhelmed," said the 18-year-old.

Bellomy, a 2007 graduate of East High, is dropping out of UAA after her first year. Instead of becoming a psychologist as she once dreamed, she's going to try to find a job in a massage therapist's office and maybe train to be a masseuse, she said.

Bellomy is not alone. Twenty-eight percent of full-time freshmen at University of Alaska schools do not return for their second year, according to a study by the Institute of Social and Economic Research at UAA.

UA schools have gotten better in the past several years at attracting more students and keeping costs down compared with Lower 48 universities. But too many of its entering students are not prepared for the rigors of college-level academics and too few are completing their degrees, according to the study.

"The first step in addressing any problem is recognizing that you have one," said Theodore Kassier, who wrote the study along with Alexandra Hill.

"Without the public's attention and understanding that these problems exist, and that they need to be addressed by the whole state, the university is just banging its head against the wall," said Kassier, who has held various positions at UAA, including provost and dean of the college of arts and sciences.

The study supports recent similar findings by the state Postsecondary Education Commission.

University administrators say the study's conclusion is not surprising. Alaska's education woes begin in grade school and continue through college and as a result the state's students lag behind on several national standards, according to recent studies. The state has more dropouts, fewer graduates who go to college, fewer students who continue with college, and even fewer who obtain their degrees within six years.

The University of Alaska, with three main campuses, in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, is the state's only public university and its largest, with about 32,000 students. It accepts anyone who has graduated from high school. Its mission is to offer an education to anyone who wants one.

With Bellomy, though, UAA failed. "I couldn't stay focused," she said, as she looked at cartoons on her laptop in the student union last week, taking advantage of the free Internet.

Bellomy took remedial math and English classes her first semester to catch up, but college-level English 111 in her second semester convinced her college wasn't for her. "It was hard."

As many as two-thirds of incoming UA freshmen aren't prepared for college-level math and English, according to the study.

Students who manage to stay the course are less likely to graduate with a B.A. in six years than their Lower 48 counterparts. According to the study, only 28 percent of UA students graduate with bachelor's degrees within six years, compared with a national average of 56 percent.

This includes students like Daniel Flores, 24, who has been after a bachelor's for five years. He's now on a part-time schedule and doesn't anticipate his degree until 2010.

"I'll go at my own pace. I'm not getting stressed," said the 2002 Dimond High graduate.

Not everyone who leaves UA drops out of higher education, university officials say. The university is now attracting more students like 18-year-old Jazmine Williams, a 2007 graduate of Service High.

Williams could have gone to a college in the Lower 48 but chose UAA because she didn't want to put a financial burden on her parents, she said.

Williams plans on doing two years at UAA to save her family the high costs of Lower 48 tuition. Then she'll transfer to a school Outside, perhaps the University of Washington, to pursue a math degree and eventually enter dental school.

"This year I realized money is really tight, and the price here is a lot more reasonable," she said.

According to the ISER study, tuition at UA schools is 24 percent less than at the average U.S. public institution.

UA has taken several steps over recent years to address problems highlighted in the study, said UA spokeswoman Kate Ripley.

Efforts include expanding distance learning, eliminating waiting lists for classes by scheduling more basic required courses, and increased fundraising efforts.

"Every year we are cranking out more and more graduates," she said.

Find Megan Holland online at adn.com/contact/mholland or call 257-4343.