The Bloomington Faculty Council unanimously approved a plan at its Tuesday meeting to no longer require prospective undergraduate students to submit standardized test scores.
Changes to the admissions policy were introduced to encourage students to apply who otherwise might not due to costs such as SAT prep. Applicants who were home-schooled, attended a school where traditional grades were not assigned or are prospective Division I athletes will still be required to submit test scores.
IU is working on implementing the changes immediately, BFC President Diane Henshel said in an email to the Indiana Daily Student.
“The other portions of their application do get higher consideration, so they need to stop and reflect on which category will be best for them to highlight,” said J Duncan, co-chair of the Educational Policies Committee.
If students decline to submit scores, preference will be given to those whose GPA is a 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale, according to the revised undergraduate admissions policy.
Though the university will no longer require applicants to submit test scores, Sacha Thieme, assistant vice provost and executive director of admissions, said students still need to be able to demonstrate academic achievement.Other indicators of academic achievement include grades and class rank, according to the revised policy.
“If you are removing one factor, which is not insubstantial, we need to know that you are stating the rest of your academic profile will hold that up,” Thieme said.
Provost Lauren Robel said this policy may not change much in the minds of students.
“When students make decisions, they are not looking at internal policy documents, Robel said. "They are looking at published averages of students who are already there.”
The council also outlined efforts to improve sustainability at IU and discussed IU-East Richmond's sustainability resolution.
Andrew Predmore, director of Sustainability at IU, detailed plans to reduce landfill waste, increase the percentage of faculty and staff who primarily use sustainable commute options and encourage students to put compostable waste into its respective bins.
The IU East Sustainability Resolution set a goal of making its campus carbon neutral by 2040, meaning it will completely compensate for its atmospheric carbon emissions. Henshel said IU East asked all IU campuses to consider putting forward their own sustainability resolutions.
Several council members said the BFC should endorse the resolution, but council members also asked for an assessment of IU's sustainability before drafting its own resolution or committing to becoming carbon neutral by a specific date.
Peter Talbot contributed reporting to this story.
