Despite the poor economy, overall enrollment across UW System campuses increased about 3,000 students from 2008 to 2009, President Kevin O'Reilly said Friday at UW-Eau Claire.

"It looks like we're on track to break another record with a total head count enrollment of about 178,000 students ...," he told the Board of Regents, noting the data isn't complete.

However, less than 60 percent of students entering four-year colleges nationwide are graduating. Michael McPherson,co-author of "Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities," shared some of the new book's findings with the board.

"Not only is the level of attainment (of a college education) stagnant, but the inequality in attainment ... is just dramatic," said McPherson, president of the Chicago-based Spencer Foundation, which supports research in education, and former president of Macalester College in St. Paul.

His book - co-authored by William Bowen and Matthew Chingos - probes graduation rates at 21 flagship public universities, including UW-Madison, and four statewide systems of public higher education, focusing on the progress of students entering college in 1999 from entry to graduation, transfer or withdrawal.

The authors examined the effects of parental education, family income, race, gender, high school grades, test scores, financial aid and the characteristics of universities attended, and concluded students from poor families and minorities have markedly lower graduation rates and take longer to graduate, McPherson said.

For example, 9 percent of students coming from families where neither parent graduated from college and where the parents were in the bottom quartile in financial income distribution earned a bachelor's degree, he said. In comparison, students coming from families near the top income distribution quartile where at least one parent was a college graduate had better than a two-thirds chance of earning a degree.

"If we're going to increase college attainment dramatically, we have to address these disparities," McPherson told the board.

Noting he wasn't an expert on the UW System, he offered a number of suggestions, including giving better advice to high school students, making high school and college students more aware of financial aid opportunities, and improving financial aid policies.

The Regents' two-day meeting in Eau Claire ended Friday. It was the first time the body met here since 2001.

O'Brien can be reached at 830-5838, 800-236-7077 or christena.obrien@ecpc.com.

UW-Stout Major OK'd

The UW System Board of Regents on Friday unanimously approved a new bachelor's degree in applied social science at UW-Stout in Menomonie. Students may begin enrolling in the new major in the fall of 2010.

"The applied social science degree will provide a unique opportunity for students who wish to pursue careers in either the public or private sector," Provost Julie Furst-Bowe said in a statement. "This degree will give students the critical thinking skills and broad background in the social sciences that they will be able to apply in their professional careers."

UW-Stout officials estimate there will be in excess of 115 students in the program at the end of five years.

The Board of Regents tentatively is scheduled to consider two additional majors for UW-Stout - supply chain management and cognitive science - at the December meeting in Madison.

- Christena T. O'Brien