NSU making strides in education

Nicholls State University has seen student grade point averages increase substantially in recent years, marking the university’s growth from an open admission to a selective admission school, said University President Stephen Hulbert at the South Central Industrial Association’s meeting Nov. 13.

The university “is no longer a school of convenience,” he said. “It’s a school of choice.”

But Louisiana needs to commit more resources to developing its technical and community college system as standards rise at the state’s regional and research universities, Hulbert warned.

The average GPA of Nicholls State students in 2000 was 2.8. Today the average is 3.14.

ACT scores of entering students have risen as well. The score in 2002 was 19.2, compared to the 2007 average of 21.2.

The 2007 figure is equivalent to the national average.

Seventy-one percent of Nicholls State students scored over 20 on their ACTs. One percent registered under 16, Hulbert said, but most of those were non-traditional students.

Hulbert ran down a list of improvements either completed or planned for the Nicholls State campus, none of them funded with state tax money.

The university has spent $3.2 million to improve parking and roads on the campus. The money to fund the project was derived from parking decal fees assessed beginning in 2004.

In August 2005, the university completed five years of renovation on its cafeteria. Hulbert called the upgraded facility “cutting edge.”

The school also has two major construction projects in the works. Nicholls purchased 74 acres of land from the Acadia Plantation subdivision to build a new $15.8 million student recreation center. Student fees will fund the facility.

In addition, the school is demolishing four existing residence halls to construct a new $50 million residence building.

Hulbert stressed that a university needs not only strong academics, but good physical facilities to attract students.

Nicholls State is also in the process of connecting into the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative, a high-speed Internet system.

Hulbert expressed concern about the community college system in Louisiana.

He said other states where he has lived like Montana, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania where he has lived have highly-developed community college structures.

He compared Louisiana’s public higher education system to a triangle, with the state’s regional universities at the base, research universities in the middle and LSU at the apex.

“LSU is now a highly-selective university,” Hulbert said. “We have a love affair with LSU and LSU football. But we need community colleges to provide training toward four-year colleges. At Nicholls State, we turn away 600 to 700 students. They need a choice.”

Fletcher Technical Community College in Houma has a bigger challenge because the school is both a community and a technical college.

“The state plan” for post-secondary education “is students should start where they should start,” he said.

Finally, Hulbert talked briefly about the need to raise tuition at universities in Louisiana. The state charges some of the lowest fees in the country, he said, and has not raised tuition in three years.