The Gateway Program

Court cases often affect the programs at public, urban universities.In the case of Hopwood v. State of Texas (1996), the court found that The University of Texas Law School had separate admissions criteria for minorities and non-minorities, and that this was a discriminatory policy.As a result of this ruling, public institutions must no longer use ethnicity in admissions decision-making.Furthermore, in response to the Hopwood decision, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 588, which requires public universities in Texas to accept automatically any applicant from the top 10% of any public or private high school class in the state of Texas, regardless of academic preparation.Therefore, students from a less rigorous high school can gain admission to any state institution even though they might not otherwise be qualified.The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) assessed its current provisional admission program and created "The Gateway Program," a new intervention designed to assist those students who did not meet regular admission requirements but who were automatically accepted under Bill 588.UTA's former provisional admission program required students to take nine hours from the liberal arts core curriculum and a one-hour college adjustment course taught by trained student paraprofessionals during two summer sessions.The courses were taught in two parts over two five-week summer sessions.Underprepared students were routinely taking six to seven hours during each five-week term.Thus, at-risk students were taking a course load equivalent to 18 to 21 hours in a regular term.The first change implemented by the creators of the Gateway Program was to limit the number of hours in which a provisional student could enroll.Over the full two-session summer semester, Gateway students were required to take English, mathematics, and a newly created three-hour college adjustment course entitled "University Success."Placement in English and math courses was based on UTA placement test scores and results from the mandatory Texas Academic Skills Preparation (TASP) exam.Team-taught by faculty and staff, University Success incorporates knowledge of campus resources with a writing component to assist students who are underprepared for college writing.In addition, courses were blocked so students are in class from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays and 9 a.m. until 11 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.There were no Friday classes.

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