"The next step for us is to talk to the Department of Education, and to help to educate people on what the requirements are," said AACRAO executive director Wayne Becraft.

The final rules require that students be tracked at the rate at which they complete or graduate and the rate at which students transfer out of institutions. If an institution chooses to establish a cohort of transfers in, the final rules require institutions to publish the data separately and not include it in the calculation of the graduation rate. Information about minority retention and graduation rates are taken into consideration.

But at the root of many of the concerns for institutions is the fact that information reported by institutions affect marketing efforts to recruit students, either positively or negatively.

Implementing the law has also meant significant expenses at many institutions, primarily in developing programming and software to collect data from various departments throughout the university. For those colleges and universities caught without a system already in place, the cost has sometimes been substantial.

Courtney O. McAnuff, vice president for enrollment services at the University of Eastern Michigan said, "We had to do a lot more with computing and had a lot more computer and software contracts. We've been dealing with this for about three years, and have spent over the years a quarter of a million dollars."

McAnuff also questions how important the information developed under the Student Right-To-Know Act is to families making decisions on where students should attend college.

"Most parents don't tell students where they should go," McAnuff said. They get involved in telling them where they shouldn't go," he said.

COPYRIGHT 1996 Cox, Matthews & Associates
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group